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“Bad boys and reformers” play politics differently, the Pirates have finally become more or less integrated into the workings of the assembly. “The party has managed to score some points with its basic themes,” writes TAZ —
Data protection, transparency, the Internet. The deputies have published the details of their incomes and their contacts with lobbyists, and debates within their caucus are broadcast live on the Internet. (...) The mere presence of the Pirates has got the other parties moving. The issues of transparency and participatory culture in Parliament have taken on a greater profile (...) and the manner of speaking has also changed. (...) It has become more direct and more confrontational.
The changes have helped the Pirates quadruple the number of their members in the Berlin federal region and now stand at 14 percent in the polls, which is higher than in the rest of Germany.
However, notes the TAZ, “the Pirates managed to put forward only 52 motions,” while “their colleagues in the opposition Green party managed to submit double that.” Worse, they have committed “a considerable number of gaffes”, including remarks on Nazism and the Holocaust that forced their leader in Berlin, Hartmut Semken, to resign.
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