Berlin – Bring out the rum and wenches, as the old establishment is made to walk the plank during the Berlin State Elections, by the Pirate Party, keelhauling the Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party,) a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. Pretty much on Talk Like A Pirate Day. Epic Win!
After the elections, FDP took the biggest hit: 13 seats where traded in favor of 15 seats for the pirates. This means that in the Berlin electorial district, one in eleven voters choose the high seas. Voters under the age of thirty even reached 21% – around one in five. This may bode well for pirates in other districts and countries.
The Pirate Party movement started in 2006 in Sweden, following the arrest of the founders of the Pirate Bay website. They fight for freedom and privacy, both on the ‘Net and IRL and the transparancy of state administration.They also seek to reform laws regarding copyright and patents.
„In unserem Programm ist das Bekenntnis zu Humanismus und zur Menschenwürde aller Menschen an erster Stelle verankert. Eine Differenzierung nach Geschlecht, Alter o.ä. lehnen wir ab.”
- Mein erster echter Wahlkampf
Other parties and groups were formed in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain and the number is growing. At this moment, there are forty countries having a Pirate Party.
As part of their campaing, the Berlin division also started a War on Trolling. Or at least, they ask their visitors to “unnötiges Trollen oder Vor-dem-ersten-Kaffee-Kommentare zu verhindern.” Some suggest there is also a Ninja party, but, being Ninjas they’re very secretive and invisible.
