As you’ve probably heard, the Pirate Party got elected into the Berlin state parliament late last year. They got 8.9% of the votes, which gave them 15 seats. Last month in local elections in another state, Saarland, they got 7.4% of the votes, but more importantly, they got 25% of the first-time voters and about the same share from previous non-voters (see this post by Marian Wirth on Google+). Some people have been pretty dismissive of them. See this article by foreign policy wonk, Dr Ulrike Guérot, in which she compares them to the Occupy movement in the US (I am not even going to try to discuss how seriously misinformed and misleading that is). On the other hand, some say that the Pirates are going to democratise Europe. Well, let’s just say that I dont think that is even one of their main goals. The most important thing to know, as the founder of the first Pirate Party, the Piratpartiet, says in the video below, is that they grew out of a protest movement and they are just beginning to deepen their philosophy. The fact that they are making real inroads in Germany is a sign of that.
What about Africa? They talk a little about that during the last 10 minutes of the video.
Thanks to Menelic for sending me the link to the video.
