Christof Leng
Who was the chair of Pirate Party Germany from Sep 2006 to 2007?
Pirate Party Germany The Pirate Party Germany ( ) , commonly known as Pirates ( German : Piraten ) , is a political party in Germany founded in September 2006 at c-base . It states general agreement with the Swedish Piratpartiet as a party of the information society ; it is part of the international movement of pirate parties and a member of the Pirate Parties International . In 2011-12 , the party succeeded in attaining a high enough vote share to enter four state parliaments ( Berlin , North Rhine-Westphalia , Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein ) and the European Parliament . However , their popularity rapidly declined and by 2017 they had no representation in any of the German state parliaments . Their one European MEP , Patrick Breyer , has joined the Greens/EFA group . Together with Marcel Kolaja , Markéta Gregorová and Mikuláš Peksa from the Czech Pirate Party they build up the European Pirate Party team for the European Parliament in Brussels . According to political theorist Oskar Niedermayer , the party sees itself as part of an international movement to shape with their term of digital revolution which is a circumscription for the transition into information society . With their focus on freedom in the net and their fight against government regulations of this sphere , they caught the attention especially of the younger generation . Even if the network policy is the core identity of the party , it is now more than just an advocacy party of digital natives and characterises itself as a social-liberal-progressive . Former federal chairman Sebastian Nerz sees the party as social-liberal party of fundamental rights which among other things wants to advocate for political transparency . Party platform . The party supports the preservation of current civil rights in telephony and on the Internet ; in particular , it opposes the European data retention policies . The party favors the civil right to information privacy and reforms of copyright , education , genetic patents and drug policy . In particular , it promotes an enhanced transparency of government by implementing open source governance and providing for APIs to allow for electronic inspection and monitoring of government operations by the citizen . The Pirate Party also supports an unconditional basic income for citizens and direct democracy via e-democracy . History . The party was founded on 10 September 2006 . Thorsten Wirth has been the Party Leader since 30 November 2013 . Previous leaders were , Sebastian Nerz , Dirk Hillbrecht , Christof Leng , and Jens Seipenbusch . In February 2009 , the village spokesperson of Hohenstein and as such city councillor in Strausberg Jens Knoblich joined the Pirate Party Germany . In June 2009 , Bundestag member Jörg Tauss left the SPD and joined the Pirate Party after the Zugangserschwerungsgesetz was passed , but left the Pirate Party in 2010 when he was convicted for possession of child pornography . In late August 2009 , Herbert Rusche , one of the founding members of the German Green Party and , in the 1980s , the first openly homosexual member of parliament in Germany , joined the Pirate Party . During the 2011 Berlin state election , the party entered a state parliament for the first time when the Berlin party chapter received 8.9 percent of the votes for the state parliament of Berlin . , the party had around 35,000 members . Election results . 2009 federal election . On 27 September 2009 , the Pirates received 2.0% ( 845,904 votes ) in the 2009 German federal election , thus not securing any seats in the Bundestag . However , this was still the best result among parties that did not meet the 5% threshold . Among first-time male voters , the party received 13% . On account of the election results in 2009 , the party fulfils the conditions for receiving public allowances . For 2009 , it received €31,504.68 ( the same amount as it received from private contributions ) which was exclusively due to the Pirates state associations Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein . The calculation was made based on the total receipts of the party in 2008 . The possible upper limit of the public allowance matching for the party is a rate of €840,554.51 . 2009 European Parliament election . It received 229,117 votes in the 2009 European Parliament election , which was 0.9% , but not enough ( at least 5% ) for a seat . State and regional elections . On 30 August 2009 , the Pirates received 1.9% in the 2009 Saxony state election . On the same day , the party also received one seat in each council in the local elections of Münster and Aachen , although candidates of the party ran for office only in some constituencies of both cities . Support for The Pirates differs somewhat between States . The party received 1.8% in the 2009 Schleswig-Holstein state election and 1.5% in the 2010 North Rhine-Westphalia state election ( though without securing seats ) , but only 0.5% in the 2009 Hesse state election and did not participate in the 2009 Brandenburg and Saarland state elections . The party received 2.1% in the 2011 Hamburg state elections , though it was not yet enough to gain seats in the State parliament . In the 2011 Baden-Württemberg state election the Pirate Party was able to repeat this result . In the 2011 Saxony-Anhalt state election they received 1.4% or 13,828 votes ; in the 2011 Rhineland-Palatinate state election they achieved 1.6% of the votes . In the 2011 Berlin state election , with 8.9% of the votes the Pirate Party of Berlin managed for the first time to overcome the 5% threshold and to win seats ( numbering 15 out of 141 seats in the Abgeordnetenhaus ) in a German state parliament . This was quite a surprise for them , since they only had 15 candidates on the ballot . In response to their election , however , Mayor Klaus Wowereit criticized their lack of diversity , most notably the lack of women in the party . In March 2012 , the Pirates received 7.4% of the vote and thus won 4 seats in the Landtag of Saarland . Subsequent 2012 polls have shown an increase in popularity in the Party . In May 2012 , they won 8.2% of the vote in Schleswig-Holstein , which was sufficient to enter the state parliament , gaining 6 seats . Also in May 2012 , they won 7.8% of the vote in North Rhine-Westphalia , gaining 20 seats . 2013 federal election . After those successful state elections , the party was able to score up to 13% in nationwide polls . However , after a string of scandals and internal disputes which were handled unprofessionally and picked up by the media , the party lost the trust of voters and entered a steady decline in polls . As a result , in the Lower Saxony state election in January 2013 , the Pirate Party was only able to gain about 2.1% of the votes , missing the 5% threshold needed to gain actual seats in the state parliament . Six months later during the Bavaria state election of 2013 the Pirates fared similarly , receiving again only 2% of the votes . At the 2013 German federal elections the following weekend , the party suffered another major defeat where it was again only able to achieve 2.2% of the votes , leading to the resignation of party leader . 2014 European Parliament election . In the 2014 European parliament elections , the Pirate Party received 1.45% of the national vote ( 424,510 votes in total ) and returned a single Member of the European Parliament . The elected MEP , Julia Reda , joined the Greens–European Free Alliance as an independent . 2016 Berlin state election . The Berlin state election on September witnessed the collapse of support for the Pirate Party in their previous stronghold of Berlin . Their previous vote of 8.9% achieved in 2011 fell to 1.7% and the Pirate Party lost all representation in the Berlin State assembly . The poor result was compounded by the murder suicide of former Pirate Party assembly member Gerwald Claus-Brunner . 2017 dropout from state parliaments . Together with the satirical party Die PARTEI the Pirate Party nominated as candidate for the German presidential election in February 2017 . The Pirate Party continued to decline in 2017 , dropping out from state parliaments . In the Saarland state election in March 2017 , the Pirate Party received only 0.7% of the voter share and therefore lost all its seats in the Landtag of the Saarland . With the North Rhine-Westphalia state election in which it lost every seat , the Pirate Party is no longer represented in any state parliament . 2019 European Parliament election . In the 2019 European Parliament election , the Pirate Party retained their MEP seat , with their lead candidate Patrick Breyer being elected . External links . - Junge Piraten ( youth organisation )