Pirate Party of Lower Saxony Fighting to make it into State Parliament | PirateTimes

Posted: January 19, 2013/Under: Creator, Election, Justus Römeth, News, Pirate Parties/By: Justus Römeth

Pirate Party of Lower Saxony Fighting to make it into State Parliament

January 19, 2013 · by Justus Römeth · in Election

Saturday is the last day of campaigning for the Lower Saxon Pirates before the state parliament (Landtag) elections on Sunday 20.01.2013 . The Pirate Party of Lower Saxony (Piratenpartei Niedersachsen) is accompanying its controversial posters with a lot of street campaigning. This includes information events inside and outside in the cold snowy wintery weather,participation in various demonstrations and not to forget the obligatory online campaigning.

The polls show Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats in the lead, but it is doubtful whether their Liberal coalition partners will make it over the 5 % threshold. The Social Democrats and the Greens will probably have more seats than the two aforementioned parties of the current ruling coalition. The polls show both the far left Left party and the Pirate Party straining to reach the 5% hurdle.

Most pirates are optimistic, however. This is because traditional polls in Germany only take citizens with landline telephones into account, which leaves out young urbanites, a significant section of pirate voters. This phenomenon also resulted in the pirates gaining seats in the last four state parliament elections with higher results than was anticipated by the pollsters.

Regardless, the 3-4 % in the latest polls serve as a motivator for Pirates from all over Germany and beyond to go on the streets of Lower Saxony this Saturday and convince the Lower Saxon populace to vote Pirate and contribute to a fundamental change in Germany’s political landscape. Follow @piratetimes on twitter on Sunday for updates on the latest results.Featured image Ideenkopierer.de CC BY-NC-SA

About Justus Römeth

I am a pirate from Hanover, Germany, interested in international networking. I think that Pirate Times is one important step to be able to better spread information on the Pirate Parties around internationally, and I hope I can contribute to that as an author and by trying to connect people interested in these topics. I will also manage the Facebook account together with Andrew.
As far as my background is concerned, I have lived in Athol, MA, for half a year during high school, did my BA at the universities of Amsterdam and Prague, and am finishing my MA degree in Euroculture at the universities of Cracow and Göttingen. I am also active with the Young Pirates of Hanover, Pirates without Borders, and the Europa Pirate Thinktank Hanover. I have been a member of Pirate Party Germany since 2009.