Pirate Party Germany

Pirate Party Germany
Piratenpartei Deutschland
LeaderLukas Küffner [de]
Founded10 September 2006; 18 years ago (2006-09-10)
HeadquartersBerlin
Youth wingYoung Pirates
Membership (6 July 2023)Decrease 5,541[1]
IdeologyPirate politics
E-democracy
Direct democracy
Social liberalism[2]
Anti-corruption[3]
European federalism[4]
European affiliationEuropean Pirate Party
European Parliament groupGreens/EFA
International affiliationPirate Parties International
Colours  Orange   Black   White
Bundestag
0 / 709
State Parliaments
0 / 1,821
European Parliament
0 / 96
Website
www.piratenpartei.de Edit this at Wikidata

The Pirate Party Germany (German: Piratenpartei Deutschland), commonly known as Pirates (German: Piraten), is a political party in Germany founded in September 2006 at c-base. It states general agreement with the Swedish Piratpartiet[5][6] as a party of the information society; it is part of the international movement of pirate parties and a member of the Pirate Parties International.

In 2011 and 2012, fuelled by overlapping support from the international Occupy Movement, the party succeeded in attaining a high enough vote share to enter four state parliaments (Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein)[7] and the European Parliament. However, their popularity rapidly declined thereafter 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 group. Together with Marcel Kolaja, Markéta Gregorová and Mikuláš Peksa from the Czech Pirate Party they build up the European Pirate Party team for the European Parliament in Brussels.

According to political theorist Oskar Niedermayer,[8] 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 information society. 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.[8]

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.[9]

  1. ^ "Mitlgiederstatistik" (in German). Vorstand Piratenpartei. 20 January 2020. Archived from the original on 19 December 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  2. ^ Franzmann, Simon (2015). "The Failed Struggle for Office Instead of Votes". In Gabriele D'Ottavio; Thomas Saalfeld (eds.). Germany After the 2013 Elections: Breaking the Mould of Post-Unification Politics?. Ashgate. pp. 166–167. ISBN 978-1-4724-4439-4.
  3. ^ Gamble, Andrew; Brett, William; Tomkiewicz, Jacek (28 May 2014). "The Political Economy of Change at a Time of Structural Crisis". In John Eatwell; Pascal Petit; Terry McKinley (eds.). Challenges for Europe in the World, 2030. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 313. ISBN 978-1-4724-1925-5.
  4. ^ "Vergleich der Positionen" (PDF) (in German).
  5. ^ Steinke, Peter (19 December 2008), "Wahlleiter lässt kleine Parteien zu: Freie Fahrt für die Piraten", Frankfurter Rundschau (in German).
  6. ^ Hauck, Mirjam (17 September 2009), "Razzia wegen Bundestrojaner: Bedingt abhörbereit", Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German), archived from the original on 3 February 2010, retrieved 9 June 2009.
  7. ^ Eddy, Melissa (8 May 2012). "Upstarts Continue to Hijack Votes in Germany". The New York Times.
  8. ^ a b Niedermayer, Oskar (21 September 2011), "Partei-Profil: Piratenpartei Deutschland", on the page of Federal Agency for Civic Education (in German).
  9. ^ "Piraten sehen sich als "sozial-liberale Grundrechtspartei"", Focus Online (in German), 5 October 2011.