The Pirate Party Germany (german: Piratenpartei Deutschland), commonly known as Pirates (), is a political party in Germany founded in September 2006 at

c-base c-base e.V. is a non-profit association located in Berlin, Germany. Its purpose is to increase knowledge and skills pertaining to computer software, hardware and data networks. The association is engaged in numerous related activities. For exampl ...

. It states general agreement with the Swedish

Piratpartiet Outside Sweden, pirate parties have been started in over 40 countries, inspired by the Swedish initiative. National pirate parties Super-national pirate parties Sub-national and regional pirate parties Youth wings References

{{Reflist ...

as a party of the

information society An information society is a society where the usage, creation, distribution, manipulation and integration of information is a significant activity. Its main drivers are information and communication technologies, which have resulted in rapid inf ...

; it is part of the international movement of pirate parties and a member of the

Pirate Parties International Pirate Parties International (PPI) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Formed in 2010, it serves as a worldwide organization for Pirate Parties, currently representing ...

. In 2011-12, the party succeeded in attaining a high enough vote share to enter four state parliaments (

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

Saarland The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, a ...

and

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...

) and the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...

. However, their popularity rapidly declined and by 2017 they had no representation in any of the German state parliaments. Their one European MEP, Patrick Breyer, is in the

Greens–European Free Alliance The Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) is a political group of the European Parliament composed primarily of green and regionalist political parties. Formed following the 1999 European elections for the 5th European Parliament, th ...

group. Together with Marcel Kolaja, Markéta Gregorová and Mikuláš Peksa from the

Czech Pirate Party The Czech Pirate Party or Pirates ( cs, Česká pirátská strana , abbreviated ''Piráti'' ) is a liberal progressive political party in the Czech Republic, founded in 2009. The party was founded as a student-driven grassroots movement campaig ...

they build up the European Pirate Party team for the

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. According to political theorist Oskar Niedermayer, the party sees itself as part of an international movement to shape with their term of " digital revolution" which is a circumscription for the transition into

. With their focus on freedom in the net and their fight against government regulations of this sphere, they caught the attention especially of the younger generation. Even if the network policy is the core identity of the party, it is now more than just an advocacy party of " digital natives" and characterises itself as a social-liberal-progressive.. Former federal chairman Sebastian Nerz sees the party as social-liberal party of fundamental rights which among other things wants to advocate for

political transparency As an ethic that spans science, engineering, business, and the humanities, transparency is operating in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed. Transparency implies openness, communication, and accountability. T ...

Party platform

Piratenpartei Deutschland 2016 (cropped)

The party supports the preservation of current

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...

telephony Telephony ( ) is the field of technology involving the development, application, and deployment of telecommunication services for the purpose of electronic transmission of voice, fax, or data, between distant parties. The history of telephony is i ...

and on the Internet; in particular, it opposes the European

data retention Data retention defines the policies of persistent data and records management for meeting legal and business data archival requirements. Although sometimes interchangeable, it is not to be confused with the Data Protection Act 1998. The different ...

policies. The party favors the civil right to

information privacy Information privacy is the relationship between the collection and dissemination of data, technology, the public expectation of privacy, contextual information norms, and the legal and political issues surrounding them. It is also known as data ...

and reforms of

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...

, education, genetic patents and

drug policy A drug policy is the policy regarding the control and regulation of psychoactive substances (commonly referred to as drugs), particularly those that are addictive or cause physical and mental dependence. While drug policies are generally implemen ...

. In particular, it promotes an enhanced transparency of government by implementing

open source governance Open-source governance (also known as open governance and open politics) is a political philosophy which advocates the application of the philosophies of the open-source and open-content movements to democratic principles to enable any interes ...

and providing for APIs to allow for electronic inspection and monitoring of government operations by the citizen. The Pirate Party also supports an

unconditional basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive an unconditional transfer payment, that is, without a means test or need to work. It would be received independently of an ...

for citizens and

direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the electorate decides on policy initiatives without elected representatives as proxies. This differs from the majority of currently established democracies, which are repres ...

via

e-democracy E-democracy (a combination of the words electronic and democracy), also known as digital democracy or Internet democracy, is the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in political and governance processes. The term is bel ...

History

Piratenpartei-Deutschland-Mitgliederentwicklung

The party was founded on 10 September 2006. Thorsten Wirth has been the Party Leader since 30 November 2013. Previous leaders were , Sebastian Nerz, Dirk Hillbrecht, Christof Leng, and

Jens Seipenbusch Jens Peter Seipenbusch (born 6 August 1968) is a German politician and physicist who was leader of the Pirate Party Germany. Seipenbusch, a founding member of his party, studied physics at the University of Münster.Strausberg Jens Knoblich joined the Pirate Party Germany. In June 2009,

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Comm ...

member Jörg Tauss left the SPD and joined the Pirate Party after the was passed, but left the Pirate Party in 2010 when he was convicted for possession of

child pornography Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a ...

. In late August 2009,

Herbert Rusche Herbert Ludwig Rusche (born 6 May 1952 in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Rhineland-Palatinate) is a German politician and LGBT activist. Rusche was born in Bad Neuenahr. In his childhood, he lived in three cities. After his schooling, he lived in Kai ...

, one of the founding members of the

German Green Party Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 ...

and, in the 1980s, the first openly gay member of parliament in Germany, joined the Pirate Party. During the

2011 Berlin state election The 2011 Berlin state election was held on 18 September 2011 to elect the members of the 17th Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin. The incumbent government consisting of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and The Left lost its majority. The SPD lost five ...

, the party entered a state parliament for the first time when the Berlin party chapter received 8.9 percent of the votes for the state parliament of Berlin. , the party had around 35,000 members.

Election results

2009 federal election

On 27 September 2009, the Pirates received 2.0% (845,904 votes) in the

2009 German federal election Federal elections took place on 27 September 2009 to elect the members of the 17th Bundestag (parliament) of Germany. Preliminary results showed that the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union ...

, thus not securing any seats in the Bundestag. However, this was still the best result among parties that did not meet the 5% threshold. Among first-time male voters, the party received 13%. On account of the election results in 2009, the party fulfils the conditions for receiving public allowances. For 2009, it received €31,504.68 (the same amount as it received from private contributions) which was exclusively due to the Pirates state associations Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. The calculation was made based on the total receipts of the party in 2008. The possible upper limit of the public allowance matching for the party is a rate of €840,554.51.Gesamtübersicht Festsetzung der staatlichen Teilfinanzierung für das Jahr 2009 gemäß §§ 18 ff. PartG
(in German), dated: 21 January 2010.

2009 European Parliament election

It received 229,117 votes in the

2009 European Parliament election The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making th ...

, which was 0.9%, but not enough (at least 5%) for a seat.

State and regional elections

On 30 August 2009, the Pirates received 1.9% in the

2009 Saxony state election The 2009 Saxony state election was held on 30 August 2009 to elect the members of the 5th Landtag of Saxony. The incumbent grand coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Social Democratic Party (SPD) led by Minister-President Stanisl ...

. On the same day, the party also received one seat in each council in the local elections of

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

and

Aachen Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th ...

, although candidates of the party ran for office only in some constituencies of both cities. Support for The Pirates differs somewhat between States. The party received 1.8% in the

2009 Schleswig-Holstein state election The 2009 Schleswig-Holstein state election was held on 27 September 2009 to elect the members of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein. It was held on the same day as the 2009 federal election and the 2009 Brandenburg state election. The election w ...

and 1.5% in the

2010 North Rhine-Westphalia state election The 2010 North Rhine-Westphalia state election was held on 9 May 2010 to elect the 15th Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia. The outgoing government was a coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) led by Min ...

(though without securing seats), but only 0.5% in the

2009 Hesse state election The 2009 Hessian state election was held on 18 January 2009 to elect the members of the Landtag of Hesse. The election was called after the failure of all government formation attempts conducted after the 2008 state election held a year earlier. ...

and did not participate in the 2009 Brandenburg and Saarland state elections. The party received 2.1% in the

2011 Hamburg state election The 2011 Hamburg state election was held on 20 February 2011 to elect the members of the 20th Hamburg Parliament. The election was triggered by the collapse of the coalition government between the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Green Al ...

s, though it was not yet enough to gain seats in the State parliament. In the

2011 Baden-Württemberg state election The 2011 Baden-Württemberg state election was held on 27 March 2011 to elect the members of the 14th Landtag of Baden-Württemberg. The incumbent coalition government of the Christian Democratic Union and Free Democratic Party led by Minister ...

the Pirate Party was able to repeat this result. In the

2011 Saxony-Anhalt state election The 2011 Saxony-Anhalt state election was held on 20 March 2011 to elect the members of the 6th Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt. The incumbent grand coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Social Democratic Party (SPD) led by Minister-Presi ...

they received 1.4% or 13,828 votes; in the

2011 Rhineland-Palatinate state election The 2011 Rhineland-Palatinate state election was held on 27 March 2011 to elect the members of the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate. The incumbent Social Democratic Party (SPD) government led by Minister-President Kurt Beck lost its majority. The SP ...

they achieved 1.6% of the votes. 2011 Berlin state election - Pirate results

In the

, with 8.9% of the votes the Pirate Party of Berlin managed for the first time to overcome the 5% threshold and to win seats (numbering 15 out of 141 seats in the ) in a German state parliament. This was quite a surprise for them, since they only had 15 candidates on the ballot. In response to their election, however, Mayor Klaus Wowereit criticized their lack of diversity, most notably the lack of women in the party. In March 2012, the Pirates received 7.4% of the vote and thus won 4 seats in the

Landtag of Saarland The Landtag of the Saarland is the state diet of the German federal state of Saarland. It convenes in Saarbrücken and currently consists of 51 members of five parties. The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) is the largest party in the Lan ...

. Subsequent 2012 polls have shown an increase in popularity in the Party. In May 2012, they won 8.2% of the vote in Schleswig-Holstein, which was sufficient to enter the state parliament, gaining 6 seats, being led by Torge Schmidt from 2013 until 2017. Also in May 2012, they won 7.8% of the vote in North Rhine-Westphalia, gaining 20 seats.

2013 federal election

After those successful state elections, the party was able to score up to 13% in nationwide polls. However, after a string of scandals and internal disputes which were handled unprofessionally and picked up by the media, the party lost the trust of voters and entered a steady decline in polls. As a result, in the Lower Saxony state election in January 2013, the Pirate Party was only able to gain about 2.1% of the votes, missing the 5% threshold needed to gain actual seats in the state parliament. Six months later during the Bavaria state election of 2013 the Pirates fared similarly, receiving again only 2% of the votes. At the

2013 German federal election Federal elections were held on 22 September to elect the members of the 18th Bundestag of Germany. At stake were all 598 seats to the Bundestag, plus 33 overhang seats determined thereafter. The Christian Democratic Union of Germany/Christian S ...

s the following weekend, the party suffered another major defeat where it was again only able to achieve 2.2% of the votes, leading to the resignation of party leader .

2014 European Parliament election

In the 2014 European parliament elections, the Pirate Party received 1.45% of the national vote (424,510 votes in total) and returned a single

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

. The elected MEP, Felix Reda, joined the

as an independent.

2016 Berlin state election

The Berlin state election on September witnessed the collapse of support for the Pirate Party in their previous stronghold of Berlin. Their previous vote of 8.9% achieved in 2011 fell to 1.7% and the Pirate Party lost all representation in the Berlin State assembly. The poor result was compounded by the murder suicide of former Pirate Party assembly member Gerwald Claus-Brunner.

2017 dropout from state parliaments

Together with the satirical party the Pirate Party nominated as candidate for the German presidential election in February 2017. The Pirate Party continued to decline in 2017, dropping out from state parliaments. In the Saarland state election in March 2017, the Pirate Party received only 0.7% of the voter share and therefore lost all its seats in the Landtag of the Saarland. With the North Rhine-Westphalia state election in which it lost every seat, the Pirate Party is no longer represented in any state parliament.

2019 European Parliament election

In the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million peop ...

, the Pirate Party retained their MEP seat, with their lead candidate Patrick Breyer being elected.

References

External links

* *
Junge Piraten
(youth organisation) {{Authority control Anti-corruption parties Liberal parties in Germany Social liberal parties

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

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