LabourList | Ahoy the Berlin Pirates (and what it means for the left in Europe)
“As last week’s column appeared on LabourList, voters in Berlin were going to the polls to choose the 149 members of the Abgeordnetenhaus, the parliament for the state of Berlin and one of the 16 states of Germany. Full election results can be found here.
At one level little changed – the left was in power before and it still is, and Klaus Wowereit of the Social Democrats is still Mayor. The intrigue came in the composition of the left-wing vote, and the rise of Germany’s newest political movement – the Pirate Party – who entered the state parliament for the first time, coming from nowhere to secure 8.9%. The free-market liberals (FDP), in Merkel’s coalition nationally, polled less than 2% and dropped out of the parliament entirely.”