Source:
The Irish TimesDEREK SCALLY in Berlin
VOTERS IN the German capital are expected to provide one final political humiliation for German chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition partners tomorrow.
After a long series of state election disasters, the Free Democrats (FDP) are poised to crash out of Berlin’s city-state parliament following local elections.
Making matters worse, the party are likely to be replaced by a band of political novices known as the Pirate Party.
After a cheeky campaign focused on civil rights, data protection and internet censorship “Die Piraten” – part of a Europe-wide movement – overtook the FDP to hit 9 per cent support in a final opinion poll.
Read more:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/0917/1224304264332.html
That's quite a jump for the Pirate Party. From Der Spiegel, 07/03/2009:
"The German Pirate Party was formed at the end of 2006 with similar principles to the original, and better known, Swedish Pirate Party. In Sweden the pirates make up the third largest independent party outside their parliament -- they campaign for copyright law reform and individual privacy. In 2008 the German version became the second Pirate Party to contest a state election (in Hesse) and last month they managed to get over 0.9 per cent of votes in the European Union parliamentary elections.
"The European elections were the tipping point," says media-liaison-pirate Fabio Reinhardt. Indeed, it has helped stir up a storm of interest in the party. Since June 9, their membership has tripled, rising to 3,200. And there are more would-be pirates signing up daily. A recent debate over Internet controls in Germany -- sparked by legislation against child pornography -- has put even more wind in the pirates' sails."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,634131,00.html