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German Pirate Party Wins in Key State Election

piratenThe German Pirate Party won several seats in the North Rhine-Westphalia state election today.

For the fourth time in a row the Pirate Party broke the 5% threshold which is needed to enter parliament.

According to the latest exit polls the Pirates received 7.5% of the total vote which translates into 18 parliament seats.

Today’s win is perhaps the most important of all as North Rhine-Westphalia has the largest population of all German states.

Previously the Pirates won seats in Berlin, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein. If the current trend continues the party has a serious shot at entering the national parliament after the next elections.

Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge has a detailed analysis on why the Pirates are doing so well in Germany.


Pirate Party Party

piraten

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  • anon

    sweet

  • RonJeremysBallBag

    heres hoping they can kill the disease

  • Anon

    “ 7.5% of the total vote”

    Gave me goosebumps

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Don-Dilly/1624894683 Don Dilly

     Ich bin ein  Pirat

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  • Guest

    Copyright cartel actions, meet consequences.

  • http://torrentfreak.com/ Rob8urcakes

    This is TERRIFIC news and it will hurt the main Parties so much that they’ll have to sit up and take notice of such strong public opinion.

    How these other Parties deal with this new threat will range from a negative campaign of ridicule & insults to a positive dilution of Pirate Party main policies as they’re adopted or absorbed. 

    Either way, it shall be difficult to ignore or dismiss us now, and we MUST be taken seriously.

    • Anyone

      the negative campaigns have already started, and the media is more than willing to chip in.

      you can see the effect already when the pirate party only got 7.5% when it was polling around 15% a few weeks ago

      • Sdfsdf

        The Pirates never had 15% in Polls in NRW. The maximum was 11%, but by Wirtschaftswoche. Serious polls are e.g. from infratest and there the Pirates got 9% maximum. Look here for all poll results of the NRW election: http://www.wahlrecht.de/umfragen/landtage/nrw.htm

        By polls for the federal elections the Pirates are still at 11% which is unchanged since months.

        But you’re right: The press is manipulating against the Pirates. Also the public service broadcasting is sending a lot of disinformation and tried to force the Pirates in the right extremistic corner. But Pirates voters are taking notice of that propaganda and are behind the Pirates all the more.

        • me

           ”But you’re right: The press is manipulating against the Pirates.”

          Not really… at least not systematically. Actually, the Pirates got pretty well treated by *most* of the German mass media. As a Pirate supporter from the very beginning, I was surprised not only that we didn’t get more negative publicity, we were literally positively hyped.

          But, of course, now it’s up to the Pirates to make the best of it. Media’s initial good will won’t last forever (obviously)… and is likely to dwindle in the coming years.

  • Anonymous

    Congratulations.  Viel Erfolg

  • Jan

    Let’s hope Germany is not the only country with Pirates in parliament.

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  • 7th_Guest

    Congrats to our German pirate brothers on their latest accomplishment! Every victory helps further solidify our cause, resolve and legitimacy across the EU. Onwards now to the national parliament next year!

  • Chameleon87

    Preliminary results currently say 7.9 / 7.8% for the Pirate Party :)

    http://www.wahlergebnisse.nrw.de/landtagswahlen/2012/aktuell/dateien/a000lw1200.html 

    Sadly enough, the CDU and SPD are still waaay up there.. damn old farts voting for the same crap every time -.-

  • me

    I was one of their voters there. It’s nice to see the Pirate movement grow by leaps and bounds… though I’m aware of its current limitations (mostly protest votes… we need to educate the general public more on the key issues the PP stands for).

  • Blank
  • Mnjugg

    My view is I think a lot of other countries watch what happens in Germany before voting.  With the Pirate Party gaining momentum I feel it will trickle to the other countries.  I don’t know of any other political organization that is bringing together so many people from such diverse ethnic and working classes.  Go Pirates and keep up the good work.

  • Anonymous

    And the best part was that the German party didn’t even need censorship.

    I can’t wait ’till September. (Dutch elections, Tim Kuik/BREIN actually HELPING the Pirate Party)

    • http://twitter.com/icanhazsake Ninja

       I hope the Dutch give a sound response to the recent censorship attempts against the Pirate Party. It’s gonna be sweet to see them up in the Government and Tim Kuik wetting his pants in fear.

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  • MAFIAA LOLZER

    The Germans have had enough of this bullshit and is finally striking back at the bought out politicians. Time to replace these corrupt people paid off by the industry to bring upon us censorship. The MAFIAA is in for a serious battle now in which money cannot buy their way out of it…Afterall they caused this uprising. 

  • Chameleon87

    I stumbled across this poster from the Pirate Party Hamburg in a forum post.

    It basically says:
    “In Singapore, they’re introducing a nationwide free WiFi.
    In Germany, the GEZ introduces radio fees for computers.
    Which country uses the capabilities of the digital age better…?”

    For those who don’t know: 
    GEZ = Gebühreneinzugszentrale der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (fee collection center of public-law broadcasting institutions in the Federal Republic of Germany)

    They’re collecting fees for every radio or TV set in a household, and they’re introducing a fee for computers as well, as they “can be used to receive radio or TV broadcasts, thus, they count as a radio or TV set”.

    It’s about time the pirate party gets some momentum here :D

    http://wiki.piratenpartei.de/images/a/a7/Singapur-anzeige.jpg 

  • Andrew Lee

    Nice! It would be long before they start taking very important spots and there is not much the elites can do about that. If they spent more time caring about the consumer and updating their business models maybe they would not be in this situation.
    It’s not 1980 anymore..

    I’m sure where I’m at “the USA” will be the last though. :(

  • Adamastor

    I want to create a Pirate Party in Portugal….

    • Fredrika

      > “I want to create a Pirate Party in Portugal….”

      Seems to already exist one, so get involved with them if you’re interested.

      http://www.partidopiratapt.eu/

  • BTGuard - BitTorrent Anonymously

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