German Pirate Party
Encyclopedia
The Pirate Party Germany (German: Piratenpartei Deutschland; short: PIRATEN, "Pirates") is a political party
in Germany based on the model of the Swedish Piratpartiet.
in telephony
and on the Internet; in particular, it opposes the European data retention
policies and Germany's new Internet censorship
law called Zugangserschwerungsgesetz
. It also opposes artificial monopolies
and various measures of surveillance
of citizens.
The party favors the civil right to information privacy and reforms of copyright
, education, and genetic patents.
It promotes in particular an enhanced transparency
of government by implementing open source governance
and providing for APIs
to allow for electronic inspection and monitoring of government operations by the citizen.
since 14 May 2011. Previous leaders were Dirk Hillbrecht
, Christof Leng
, and Jens Seipenbusch
.
In February 2009, the village spokesperson of Hohenstein and as such city councillor in Strausberg
Jens Knoblich joined the Pirate Party Germany. In June 2009, Bundestag
member Jörg Tauss
left the SPD
and joined the Pirate Party after the Zugangserschwerungsgesetz was passed, but left the Pirate Party in 2010 when he was convicted for possession of child pornography. In late August 2009, Herbert Rusche
, one of the founding members of the German Green Party and, in the 1980s, the first openly homosexual member of parliament in Germany, joined the Pirate Party.
On account of the election results in 2009 the party fulfils the conditions for receiveing public allowances
. For 2009 it received 31,504.68€ (the same amount as it received from private contributions) which was exclusivly due to the PIRATEN 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€.
. On the same day, the party also received one seat in each council in the local elections of Münster
and Aachen
, although candidates of the party ran for office only in some constituencies of both cities.
Support for The PIRATEN differ somewhat between States. The party received 1.8% in the 2009 Schleswig-Holstein state election
and 1.5% in the 2010 North Rhine-Westphalia state election
(though without securing seats), but only 0.5% in the 2009 Hesse state election
and did not participate in the 2009 Brandenburg
and Saarland state elections
.
The party received 2.1 % in the 2011 Hamburg state elections
, though it was not yet enough to gain seats in the State parliament. In the Baden-Württemberg state election, 2011
the Pirate party was able to repeat this result. In the Saxony-Anhalt state election, 2011
they received 1.4% or 13,828 votes, in the Rhineland-Palatinate state election, 2011
they achieved 1.6% of the votes.
In the 2011 Berlin state election
, with 8.9 % of the votes the Piratenpartei managed for the first time to overcome the 5 % threshhold and to win seats (numbering 15 out of 141 seats in the Abgeordnetenhaus) 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 present in the party.
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
in Germany based on the model of the Swedish Piratpartiet.
Party Platform
The party supports the preservation of current civil rightsCivil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
in telephony
Telephony
In telecommunications, telephony encompasses the general use of equipment to provide communication over distances, specifically by connecting telephones to each other....
and on the Internet; in particular, it opposes the European data retention
Telecommunications data retention
In the field of telecommunications, data retention generally refers to the storage of call detail records of telephony and internet traffic and transaction data by governments and commercial organisations...
policies and Germany's new Internet censorship
Internet censorship in Germany
Internet censorship in Germany is practised by law as well as the effect of some court decisions.An example of content censored by law is the removal of web sites from Google search results that deny the holocaust, which is a felony under German law....
law called Zugangserschwerungsgesetz
Zugangserschwerungsgesetz
The Zugangserschwerungsgesetz was a German law that aimed to make it difficult to access sites on the World Wide Web with depictions of sexual activity by and against children...
. It also opposes artificial monopolies
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
and various measures of surveillance
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
of citizens.
The party favors the civil right to information privacy and reforms of copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
, education, and genetic patents.
It promotes in particular an enhanced transparency
Transparency (social)
Transparency is a general quality. It is implemented by a set of policies, practices and procedures that allow citizens to have accessibility, usability, utility, understandability, informativeness and auditability of information and process held by centers of authority...
of government by implementing open source governance
Open source governance
Open-source governance is a political philosophy which advocates the application of the philosophies of the open-source and open-content movements to democratic principles in order to enable any interested citizen to add to the creation of policy, as with a wiki document. Legislation is...
and providing for APIs
Application programming interface
An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
to allow for electronic inspection and monitoring of government operations by the citizen.
History
The party was founded on 10 September 2006. The party leader has been Sebastian NerzSebastian Nerz
Sebastian Matthias Nerz is a German politician and bioinformatician who has been the leader of the Pirate Party Germany since May 2011.- Biography :...
since 14 May 2011. Previous leaders were Dirk Hillbrecht
Dirk Hillbrecht
Dirk Hillbrecht is a software developer and a former leader of the Pirate Party Germany.He is also a campaigner against software patents, and regional contact for patentfrei.de in Niedersachsen.- External links :*...
, Christof Leng
Christof Leng
Christof Leng is a German politician and computer scientist. As a founding member of the Pirate Party Germany, he became its first leader on September 10, 2006. Leng, who held the post until May 2007, works as a research fellow at the Darmstadt University of Technology. He is a board member of the...
, and Jens Seipenbusch
Jens Seipenbusch
Jens Seipenbusch 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...
.
In February 2009, the village spokesperson of Hohenstein and as such city councillor in Strausberg
Strausberg
Strausberg is a city in Brandenburg, Germany, located 30 km east of Berlin. With a population of 26,206 in 2010 it is the largest town in the district of Märkisch-Oderland.-History:...
Jens Knoblich joined the Pirate Party Germany. In June 2009, Bundestag
Bundestag
The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
member Jörg Tauss
Jörg Tauss
Jörg Tauss is a German politician and former member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany . He was born in Stuttgart. From 2000 to 2009, Tauss was the spokesperson of the Education and Research workgroup of the SPD in the Bundestag...
left the SPD
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
and joined the Pirate Party after the Zugangserschwerungsgesetz was passed, but left the Pirate Party in 2010 when he was convicted for possession of child pornography. In late August 2009, Herbert Rusche
Herbert Rusche
Herbert Ludwig Rusche is a German politician and LGBT activist.Rusche was born in Bad Neuenahr. In his childhood, he lived in three different cities. After his schooling, he lived in Kaiserslautern, Heidelberg, Berlin, Hamburg, Offenbach am Main and Frankfurt am Main...
, one of the founding members of the German Green Party and, in the 1980s, the first openly homosexual member of parliament in Germany, joined the Pirate Party.
2011 Berlin State Election
The PIRATEN with 8.9% of the votes won 15 seats in the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin.2009 German Federal election
On 27 September 2009, the PIRATEN received 2.0% (845,904 votes) in the 2009 German federal election. This result means that the party failed to secure any seat in the Bundestag, however this was also the best result among the parties who didn't achieve the required 5% threshold. Among the first-time male voters the party received 13%.On account of the election results in 2009 the party fulfils the conditions for receiveing public allowances
Campaign finance
Campaign finance refers to all funds that are raised and spent in order to promote candidates, parties or policies in some sort of electoral contest. In modern democracies such funds are not necessarily devoted to election campaigns. Issue campaigns in referendums, party activities and party...
. For 2009 it received 31,504.68€ (the same amount as it received from private contributions) which was exclusivly due to the PIRATEN 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€.
2009 European Parliament election
It received 229,117 votes in the 2009 European Parliament election, which was 0.9%, but not enough (at least 5%) for a seat. The number of party members has increased since then. , the party had over 12,000 members.German State and Regional elections
On 30 August 2009, the PIRATEN received 1.9% in the 2009 Saxony state electionSaxony state election, 2009
State elections took place in Saxony on 30 August 2009, the same day as the Saarland and Thuringia state elections. The election results decided control of the Landtag of Saxony...
. On the same day, the party also received one seat in each council in the local elections of Münster
Münster
Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...
and Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
, although candidates of the party ran for office only in some constituencies of both cities.
Support for The PIRATEN differ somewhat between States. The party received 1.8% in the 2009 Schleswig-Holstein state election
Schleswig-Holstein state election, 2009
State elections were held in Schleswig-Holstein on 27 September 2009, the same day as the German federal elections and the Brandenburg state elections...
and 1.5% in the 2010 North Rhine-Westphalia state election
North Rhine-Westphalia state election, 2010
The North Rhine-Westphalia state election, 2010, was an election held on May 9, 2010, to elect members to the Landtag of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The incumbent government at the election was the Christian Democrat –FDP administration of Minister-President Jürgen Rüttgers...
(though without securing seats), but only 0.5% in the 2009 Hesse state election
Hesse state election, 2009
Early state elections for the Landtag of Hesse were held in Hesse on 18 January 2009. The reason for the early elections was the inability of the parties to form a government after the inconclusive 2008 Hessian election.-Issues and background:...
and did not participate in the 2009 Brandenburg
Brandenburg state election, 2009
State elections were held in Brandenburg on 27 September 2009, the same day as the German federal elections and the Schleswig-Holstein state elections...
and Saarland state elections
Saarland state election, 2009
State elections were held in Saarland on 30 August 2009, the same date as the Saxony and Thuringia state elections. The election decided control of the Landtag of Saarland .-Results:...
.
The party received 2.1 % in the 2011 Hamburg state elections
Hamburg state election, 2011
On February 20, 2011, a state election was held in Hamburg, Germany, for the 20th legislative period of the Hamburg Parliament after World War II. The election is a result of the collapse of the coalition government led by the Christian Democratic Union and the Green Alternative List . The Hamburg...
, though it was not yet enough to gain seats in the State parliament. In the Baden-Württemberg state election, 2011
Baden-Württemberg state election, 2011
The Baden-Württemberg state election 2011, was held on March 27, 2011, to elect members to Baden-Württemberg's State diet, the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart. It was the 14th state election since the foundation of Baden-Württemberg in 1952...
the Pirate party was able to repeat this result. In the Saxony-Anhalt state election, 2011
Saxony-Anhalt state election, 2011
The Saxony-Anhalt state election was held on March 20, 2011 in Saxony-Anhalt for the 20th legislative period of the Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt. The Minister-President since 2002 has been Wolfgang Böhmer , who formed a grand coalition with the SPD after the previous state election in 2006...
they received 1.4% or 13,828 votes, in the Rhineland-Palatinate state election, 2011
Rhineland-Palatinate state election, 2011
The 2011 Rhineland-Palatinate state election was conducted on 27 March 2011 to elect all 101 members to the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate. It was held by proportional representation with a 5% threshold...
they achieved 1.6% of the votes.
In the 2011 Berlin state election
Berlin state election, 2011
The last Berlin state election was held on 18 September 2011, to elect members to the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin. All 141 seats were up for election. Berlin was governed by a coalition between the Social Democratic Party and The Left at the time. Current mayor Klaus Wowereit was the favourite...
, with 8.9 % of the votes the Piratenpartei managed for the first time to overcome the 5 % threshhold and to win seats (numbering 15 out of 141 seats in the Abgeordnetenhaus) 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
Klaus Wowereit
Klaus Wowereit is a German politician, member of the SPD , and has been the Mayor of Berlin since the 2001 state elections, where his party won a plurality of the votes, 29.7%. He served as President of the Bundesrat in 2001/02. His SPD-led coalition was re-elected in the 2006 elections...
criticized their lack of diversity, most notably the lack of women present in the party.
External links
- Piratenpartei Deutschland
- Junge Piraten – Youth organisation