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Pirate Party Wins Seat In Berlin

Posted by samzenpus on from the walking-the-plank-of-the-people dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Pirate Party won its first seat in the Berlin state elections with almost 9% of the vote. From the article: '"We will get right to work," top Pirate candidate, Andreas Baum, told ZDF television. "This is all new for us."'"

5 of 241 comments (clear)

  1. Re:First... by wo1verin3 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Just in time for Talk Like a Pirate Day, September 19th.

  2. Not just one by Shoe+Puppet · · Score: 4, Informative

    They haven't just won one seat but about 14-15. Interestingly, more seats would have been mostly useless to them as they have only nominated 15 candidates -- if they gain more seats than that or if they have to replace a member mid-term, they will have to leave that seat empty.

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    (+1, Disagree)
    1. Re:Not just one by Asic+Eng · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes their original goal was "merely" to get over the 5% hurdle. German state and federal elections are run with a proportional voting system, but there is a 5% cut-off. So if you have less than 5% of the votes you will not get any seats, even if your proportion of the votes would amount to one or two. (Leaving out some details here, but that's the gist of it.) So getting over that hurdle is a big deal for a new party.

  3. Not just one by BitterKraut · · Score: 5, Informative

    Chances are that everyone on their list, which comprised only 15 candidates, will win a seat in the Berlin senate.

  4. big win by Tom · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is a huge win for the german Pirate Party, as it puts it on the radar of all the mainstream press, even those that tried to ignore it so far.

    By this time tomorrow, everyone in Germany will have heard about the Pirate Party. That one of the old, established parties has been decisively kicked from parliament (~2% of the votes, with 5% being required to enter parliament) only strengthens this perception, as the Pirate Party is called a "replacement" in some circles - the party kicked out is the Liberal party, which aside from being strictly capitalistic also used to ride on the tickets of things like freedom, liberty, individualism - stuff that is close to the Pirates as well.

    Also, the PP has gotten through other important barriers straight away: They're officially a faction, with all the rights (an office in the parliament building, etc.) of the old parties. It will be receiving campaign money (Germany has a system where the parties receive tax money to cover their expenses during the campaigns, based on the number of votes they got, but you need a certain amount to receive any at all. The purpose of the system is to make sure not only the rich can afford campaigns, and parties don't need to rely on contributions from lobbyists/companies/etc. to campaign).

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    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org