German Piratenpartei: The Hype Is Over

In September 2009, General Elections were held in Germany; the German Piratenpartei (German Pirate Party) won approximately 2% of the votes. This was much more than the 0.9% share in the elections to the European Parliament a few months before but by far less than the quorum of 5% necessary to gain any seats in the lower chamber of the German Parliament (Bundestag).

On May 09, 2010, elections for the Parliament (Landtag) of the German State of Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia) were held but the Piratenpartei merely got a share of 1.6%.

The federal party convent of the Piratenpartei held from May 15-16, 2010, in Bingen, a small town at the river Rhine, appeared to be centered mainly around various administrativa in order to build proper organisatorical structures for more than 10,000 new party members gained since beginning of last year. According to reports in the press and on the Internet, debates held there have not been much inspirational.

Google Trends shows that public interest in Piratenpartei measured in terms of search frequency has sharply dropped immediately after General Elections in 2009.

So, let us forget about the Piratenpartei and move on?

Well, I am inclined to say: Not that fast!

As readers of this Blog perhaps might know, German Federal President (Bundespräsident) Mr Köhler suddenly had decided to resign and step down from office with immediate effect earlier this week. His successor has to be elected by the Federal Convention (Bundesversammlung) within 30 days, and the political class in Germany felt some pressure to nominate candidates for this high office. According to some media reports, German Chancellor Ms Merkel originally favoured to support Ms Ursula von der Leyen as candidate for the governing coalition. Ms von der Leyen currently serves as the Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs in the Second Cabinet Merkel. Only today official announcement was made that instead Mr Christian Wulff, currently serving as Prime Minister of the state of Lower Saxony, shall be the Government's official candidate.

What is remarkable in this context is that during a time window of merely three days wherein Ms von der Leyen was, on the basis of rumours originating from the usual 'well-informed circles', heralded to be Government's champion for Presidency, a strong Internet-based campaign against her candidature emerged virtually out of nothing, visible e.g. on Twitter and Facebook. The reason was that 'Zensursula', as her nickname goes, was responsible for a law rushed through Parliament in 2009 just before it got dissolved, requiring ISPs to create a mandatory Internet filtering infrastructure for, so the official doctrine goes, fighting dissemination of child pornography. Meanwhile, after strong protests in 2009 against the rationale of that law, the new Government has blocked it from being enforced until further decisions are taken but the Internet public is adamant in holding Ms von der Leyen politically responsible therefor.

Icon of ad-hoc campaign against candidature of Ms von der Leyen

It is most likely that Ms Merkel did not withdraw her support for a candidature of Ms von der Leyen due to the emerging campaign on the Internet. The reality might be that conservative catholic circles within the Christian Democratic Union were uneasy to see not only two women occupying the topmost offices in Germany but also two protestants. The candidature of Ms von der Leyen would have disturbed delicate confessional and gender balances.

What we can learn from the spontaneous and strong reaction of the Internet public against a potential candidature of Ms von der Leyen is that the recent decline of the voting shares of the Piratenpartei does not mean that a strong feeling of discontent about the ongoing dominance of an elite that does not really understand the terms of modern digital social life of 'Digital Natives' or, if you prefer, 'Digital Residents' is vanishing. To the contrary, political action of Internet activists against representatives of the political class seen as unapt to govern a society in the digital age can flame up at any time with virtually no premonition. And, we should face it, a strong scepticism against current state of affairs in the field of IP law is deeply rooted not only amongst Piratenpartei activists but also in broader circles of the young 'Digital Residents'.

During the campaign for the elections in North Rhine-Westphalia no specific matters related to the digital life had been subject of the political discussion. I think this is an important factor causing the low result of the Piratenpartei there. Whenever new political initiatives should come up threatening to hamper the life of the 'Digital Residents' the voting share of Piratenpartei likely will surge again.

Finally, I think that there is something very serious to learn: We currently see an increasing polarisation of 'Digital Visitors' or 'Luddites' who, when confronted with the ever expanding digital domain in everyday's life, start complaining on risks and potential damages. A very prominent exponent of this sort of people in Germany is Mr Frank Schirrmacher, a distinguished German journalist, doctored literature expert and essayist, writer, and since 1994 co-publisher of the national German broadsheet newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). Mr Schirrmacher has written a book centered on the description of drawbacks and perils of the digital society, stressing that the information overload caused by the Internet overwhelms humble human beings and damages our brains. Over and over, essay by essay and TV talk show by TV talk show, he insists on promoting knowledge of the downsides of the digital society as we see it emerging right now.

Surely Mr Schirrmacher is a very influential intellectual in Germany. And many individuals of current elites as well as of the middle class think like him.

During the middle five decades of the 20th century the Germans were very good at mechanics and simple electrical machinery. In some fields of 20th century technologies they were world leaders. However, they never really have embraced digital technologies. Starting in the 1980s, many concerns were raised against introduction of computers in offices and factories. Things got worse after in the 1990s the Internet became accessible by everybody. Yes, many German engineers have since then acquired deep knowledge in digital technologies but due to lack of support from the financial and business elites they were effectively restricted to specific niches. Perhaps Mr Heinz Nixdorf has been a singular exception but he also eventually failed.

Could it perhaps be that present economic demise and de-industrialisation of Germany - compared to the flourishing 20th century industries - is somehow related to an ongoing alienation of our political, financial and intellectual elites with regard to the transformation of our lives under the influence of digital technologies? Are they the bottleneck of technological progress in Germany? And, hence: Should one seek to politically disempower those 'old school' elites in order to raise the economic prospects of Germany?

Suddenly the coming up of the Piratenpartei might appear to be like a mirror image of our elites failing to get down to proper business in a digital world.