The German Pirate Party, with its appeal to younger, internet-savvy voters disillusioned with the country's established parties, enjoyed a surprise success during recent state elections in Berlin, gaining 8.9 percent of the vote. However, German voters are still waiting to see what the Pirates will actually offer them, now that they have gained their first seat in a state parliament.
An October poll by research group Forsa placed the Pirate Party at 8 percent nation-wide, ahead of the Left Party - a mixture of disillusioned Social Democrats and former supporters of East Germany's main socialist party - which currently stands at 7 percent.
The Pirate Party, who base themselves on the Swedish equivalent, was established five years ago and has since gathered 13,000 members across Germany. The party originally focused on file-sharing and free multimedia downloads. Now, they also want to reform laws regarding copyright and patents, and support the right to privacy both on the internet and in daily life.
Party chairman Sebastian Mink says recent nationwide polls are proof that the Pirate's success was no fluke. He describes the party as: "a socially liberal party to the right." His party's aim is to make politics "more open and transparent," he recently told reporters. The party wanted a "communication change between lawmakers and citizens" and the internet should play a bigger role in that, Mink said.
However, the question is whether the votes for the little-known libertarians, whose programme includes greater personal data protection and the legalisation of cannabis, were genuine or tactical. Many voted for the Pirates in protest, "to make a statement against long-standing parties like the Social Democrats," says Anja Nussbaum, one of its backers.
"Although their manifesto was a bit threadbare and focused mainly on transparence, I figured most parties do not deliver on their promises anyway, so I decided to branch out and look at alternatives," she told dpa. Nussbaum added that the Pirates brought something "young, fresh and a little bit anarchic" to politics, which could only have a "positive effect within a conservative environment."
"It was the lesser of two evils - for me the decision lay in voting for the Pirates or not voting at all," the 38-year-old nurse says. Not only are some of their ideas contentious, there has also been controversy regarding some of its members' previous political involvement with the far-right National Democratic Party, the NPD.
Grassroots members, however, seem unconcerned. That relaxed approach to the past could make the Pirates vulnerable to attack from other parties, which are already jealous of their success. "This approach could open them up to criticism," says Juergen Falter, a political analyst. Often compared to the early rise of the Greens, the Pirate Party presents something new and different, and is considered the Green's biggest rival, as they appeal to the same youthful electorate.
"The Greens in particular will turn it into an issue because they fear the Pirates." The Pirate Party would be well advised to "clean up the problem, otherwise they will suffer heavily from this," Falter says. "We will have to see if they deliver on the opportunity the public has given them - the Greens have gone stale," Nussbaum notes.
Perhaps the real reason for the Pirates' popularity is the growing view among many voters that other parties provide no real alternative. However, while the party has called for a "fundamental change in political operations," it has done little to explain what it means by this.
"The internet has completely changed the axis of our thinking," says Marina Weis Band, the party's political director. It is, therefore, of key importance that they promote education, she says. Still, the party has yet to develop a position on foreign policy, having focused mainly on internet issues, she admits.
For example, the Pirates' agenda includes free travel on the Berlin subway, but they have not yet spelled out how this should be financed. Another priority is a free, city-wide wireless internet network. However, according to media reports, it is not just about opening citizens up to an online world - the Pirate Party also wants to raise awareness about the risks and dangers of life online.
The party says that its greater familiarity with the online world - which is lacking in most established parties - is the main reason for its popularity among younger voters. "There are many people who attempt to use this medium but who haven't really mastered it," political scientist Oscar Niedermeyer notes. It is due to the internet that young people are used to having their questions answered with little turn-around time. The Pirates hope to coax their voters by doing just that.
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