BERLIN: Buoyed by stellar opinion polls and a stunning election score in Berlin, the upstart Pirate Party aims to shake up the cosy world of German politics but experts warn they must first show they can govern.
With wacky policies such as free public transport for all and voting from 14, the web-savvy Pirates have shot to prominence in recent weeks after winning seats in Berlin's regional parliament with nine percent of the vote.
Surveys show the party, which has battled to shed its geeky image, could gain the same percentage of the vote nationally, winning seats in the German parliament and radically changing the country's complex electoral arithmetic.
Polling expert Manfred Guellner said he has never seen a party enjoying such rapid success as the Pirate Party, set up five years ago and composed mainly of young, inexperienced politicians in their 20s and 30s.
Guellner drew parallels with the ecologist Green movement, which rose rapidly from humble beginnings in the 1980s to become a major force in German politics, enjoying two terms in the federal government.
Now the Pirates are setting their sights on the next election, due in 2013.
The party's national leader, Sebastian Nerz, said last week he could imagine the Pirates taking part in coalition talks to form the next government of Europe's top economy.
"I think our score in recent surveys shows that we are not a one-hit wonder. It shows that people are interested in our topics," the 28-year-old told a packed press conference to roll out their policies.
Reading from a tablet computer, Nerz proved self-assured when talking about the Pirates' main topics -- such as improved data protection and bringing more transparency to politics -- but less secure on the burning issues of the day.
Pressed on Greece and the eurozone debt crisis, Nerz replied: "No one has an answer to the Greek crisis. None of the parties in the Bundestag (parliament) can say how the problem should be solved. Nor can the Pirate Party."
"The difference with the other parties is that we admit it."
"We're still young, we don't know yet," said 24-year-old Marina Weisband, another top Pirate, when pressed about the party's manifesto, with Nerz saying he was "confident" they would have a full national programme in place by 2013.
Experts said the Pirates could not rely on youthful honesty for long and would need to formulate policies outside their comfort zone.
The Pirate Party must reach out to voters "interested in matters other than web policy and citizens' rights, such as the euro crisis, economic development, Afghanistan and unemployment," said Marcel Solar, political expert at Bonn University.
"If they really want to be an alternative, it's not that attractive to say 'yeah, we need to talk about that' and 'yeah, we don't really know about that," Solar told AFP.
Hans Lietzmann, a political scientist from the University of Wuppertal, stressed that the Pirate Party must now transform itself from what Chancellor Angela Merkel dubbed them -- "a classic protest party" -- to a serious force.
"They rang alarm bells, but now they need to show they can govern, otherwise it will all just be a nice try," he said.
Even Germany's most influential news weekly, Spiegel, has praised the Pirates, but not in completely glowing terms.
The party "exudes a freshness and nonchalance the likes of which has not been seen in German politics for many years, although even this freshness has its limits," said the magazine.
"Pirate meetings occasionally smell like the men's locker room after a game," added Spiegel, amid criticism the party is too male dominated.
Another influential weekly, Wirtschaftswoche, also handed out double-edged praise. "The Pirates stand for the lifestyle of the Internet generation, the offspring of Steve Jobs, for whom the Internet marks a social revolution.
"They still lack the will to seize power, like the muesli-Greens before them, and the crucial question will be who joins forces with them in their crusade against the established parties," concluded the magazine.
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