19 out of 218 pirate candidates running in the local elections received enough votes to become municipal councillors. Kim Müller was appointed as alderwoman in Ell and with Mandy Arendt in Colmar-Berg, the party even gained its very first mayor.
As a result, the Pirates want to hold on to their latest slogan - ‘Gerecht Léisunge fir haut a muer’ (‘Fair solutions for today and tomorrow’) - for the legislative elections in October this year. Certain points from their campaign manifesto will also be taken over, most notably those focusing on housing and fair tax policies. The goal of the party is to represent all population classes and ages.
The final campaign manifesto for the parliamentary elections will be presented at the Pirates’ national congress in August.
In conversation with RTL, MP Sven Clement, their national lead candidate, commented: “I think the traditional themes, which we already included in 2017 and 2018, are of course affordable housing and security. We continue talking about just solutions for today and tomorrow. We believe that just solutions can come from both sides of the political spectrum, but they have to work in pragmatic manner for most people and not only be presented in ideological fashion.
The candidate lists for the four constituencies are to be unveiled over the coming weeks. Recent polling has shown positive trends for the party, which the municipal elections seem to have confirmed.
Ambitions for the Chamber elections are therefore high, acknowledged MP Clement: “I think every party has the same goal. We want to get as big a piece of the pie as possible. A big piece means of course seats in the Chamber. And with that having sway over the agenda to be discussed in the coming years or even over the formation of an administration. For us it is clear that we want take responsibility, but if voters say it is not yet time, then we are looking forward to carry out constructive opposition work, hopefully with a larger team, so the goal is clearly to strengthen the parliamentary group.”
As for potential partners, the Pirate Party only sees the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) and the Left as unfeasible options.
