German mainstream parties lack proficiency in internet politics – German Pirates party gains ground

A survey of BitKom in Germany revealed, that most of the German citizens believe that political parties have no profound internet knowledge and capabilities.

Every 6^th voter thinks that no of the big mainstream parties have any clue about internet and internet politics. Every 3^rd voter seems to see a little bit of internet competency for at least one party.

Internet politics and internet related topics become increasingly vote deciding topics. 60% of the Germans agree that internet has to play a bigger role in politics.

The party with the best understanding of internet politics is according to the survey the green party Bündnis 90/Die Grünen. 10% of the voters think that the green party know at least something about internet politics.

In 2009, the new party “the pirates party”, a party of young people and internet activists, had a tremendous success in the parliamentary elections. The party succeeded with a jump start in votes from 0% to 2%, which is 847.870 people. No other party in the elections could acquire so many new voters. 32% of the voters are male below the age of 30, a lot of them are academics.

This shows the public’s concerns about internet law. Its election programme is focused on free access to information in the internet without any limitations or government interference such as internet monitoring by the state.

The party is focused on:

• Civil rights
• Privacy regulations
• intellectual property as well as Open Source, patents and copyrights

In the European elections, the German pirates party could gain 229.117 votes.

The German Pirate party’s sister, the the Swedish Piratpartiet even made it into the European Parliament. An overview over the different pirate parties can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_Parties_International

Source:

http://winfuture.de/news,59715.html

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,651655,00.html

http://www.piratenpartei.de/node/627

http://www.piratenpartei.de/presse/Piraten_segeln_ins_Europaparlament

http://wiki.piratenpartei.de/Bundestagswahl_2009