“Why am I hanging here, if you’re not going to vote anyway?”, – the sceptic guy asks from the poster. In such a way Pirate Party Germany (PPG) appeals to young electorate, which avoids taking responsibility. In 2009 the youngest political movement in Germany showed incredibly successful start during the German Federal election. Almost 850 000 young Germans supported the idea of destroying the data retention and widespread web censorship.
No hooks, rum bottles and wooden legs. Instead of floating on the Caribbean Sea political pirates have a small office in Berlin. You can easily find it with a help of a poster which suggest to better vote for pirates than for other candidates. Few rooms contain computers, posters and servers over the WC. If you’re thirsty you can take a bottle of water or beer from the fridge and chill in the backyard behind the office. Even in the moments they relax from rough seas pirates stay online, continually searching the web via iPhones.
“In 2009 there was a mass storage of communication data”, – says Christopher Lauer, the managing director of PPG.That year internet activity of more than 80 000 000 Germans was strictly controlled. That’s when pirates started to conquer Germany. The whole movement however was founded in Sweden five years ago.
The pirate program derived from internet copyright and intellectual property, but today PPG deals with many different fields. Youth aged 18-35 share their ideas – at the European Election pirates got nearly one percent and their Swedish one-eye colleagues – about seven percent without any special advertising. Now the election campaign is much stronger – Berlin is covered with posters with provocative quotations.
Three months after the European Election there was a popularity explosion, when 8 000 people wanted to come on PPG’s board. Becoming the pirate is quite easy – you only need to fill in a form, send it to the office and transfer the member fee. But it’s not about the official participation – the most important requirement is sharing the pirate ideology.
“Our newest idea is social security topic. For example, 79 million euros are funded for the weather forecasts, and if you want to have this data you need to pay. In USA this information is available to everyone, people can use it for business”. Pirates also suggest to cancel all the censorship in web. “If you wanna catch someone who drives too fast you just get the police outside and put those radars in the places where people drive too fast. What you DO NOT do is place every hundred meters barricades with police and machine guns and say: “Everyone who drives too fast gets shot”, – explains Lauer.
Pirates use different sources for promotion, competing with parties which have more money. Facebook page, Twitter communication – PPG members use internet like digital natives. “There is no clear line between our private usage of the internet and our campaigning. I’m posting pirate stuff with my normal Facebook account,” – says the managing director. Pirates try to find ideas for unusual advertising – for example Cristopher suggested to rename his own wi-fi network at home to phrase saying “Vote for us on the 18th of September” and provide a google map for other people who could subscribe and do the same.
Speaking about the Youth Pirate Party or how they call them Jupis – it’s not that large, because the party is young itself (you can join it since you’re 16). But Christopher is sure: in 10-15 years they’ll become elder and make a serious youth pirate gang: “One day we’ll need young people who will kick our asses and say:”What are you doing?”.
Pirate activist Martin Delius tells that he was always engaged into politics. Since childhood he managed things with youth community, organized soccer tournaments etc. “If you have political goal and want to achieve it, you can be member of a party and force your way, or go outside and throw stones, – explains Martin. – If you want to reach youngsters – take them serious. Let them vote. Give them possibility to do something when they are 12 or 14 years old”.
“Young people have problems with the state of mind. They want to go into politics because sort of things can go better, On the other hand they don’t have tools and don’t see the opportunity”, – adds Christopher. Another party member Sebastian Jabusch is sure, that people always want to have influence on their society despite of the age. And structures of politics and parties are able to fulfil these wishes.
For solving the problem of youth political indifference Pirate Party plans to introduce a revolutionary idea – changing the voting age from 18 to 0. According to Christopher, when you are able to go to the city council and say you can vote, you should vote. “For example my grandmother is 80, she is a nice person, although she is not as fit in her head as used to be. 14-year old guy with IQ 140 is very interested in politics, but is not allowed to vote. If everyone has a right to choose, politics will take youngsters more serious and on the contrary”.
So, what’s next? According to the polls, Pirates are about to gain 3 – 4,5% at regional election in September. That means, they won’t enter the Parliament this year. The main goal of pirates is successful participation in General Elections on 2013. Before that young politicians will figure out the principes of politics, learn the theory and of course find new crew members for the deck of pirate ship.
By: Valerie Pochko (Ukraine), Girts Taurins (Latvia)
