The German Pirate Party has recorded a significant victory in state elections, which sees the newly formed party gain 9% of the vote, and as many as 15 seats in the 130 seat parliament.
The victory came at the expense of the Free Democrats party, a junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's national government. The Free Democrats only recorded 2% of the vote, and is set to lose its seats in the Berlin regional parliament.
For the Pirate Party, only founded in 2006, their platform has been one of transparency. Important issues for the party in this election were censorship, privacy, and of course, the file-sharing issue and what the party believes is the over-reaction in the response to the web piracy issue.
This latest victory follows victory by the Swedish Pirate Party in the EU elections, which eventually led to the party winning a seat in the EU parliament.
One of the new MPs, The Pirate Party's Christopher Lauer, was surprised and overjoyed at the victory. "It is breathtaking, a surreal feeling, because there is nothing that compares to this," tweeted Lauer.
The leader of the German Pirate Party, Sebastian Nerz, also hailed the victory. "It's the first time since the 1980s that a new political power has come onto the stage," he said in front of television cameras.
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