![Martin Sonneborn](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Martin_Sonneborn.jpg)
(''Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroots Democratic Initiative''), or Die PARTEI (''The PARTY''), is a German
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
. It was founded in 2004 by the editors of the German
satirical magazine
This is a list of satirical magazines which have a satirical bent, and which may consist of fake news stories for mainly humorous purposes.
List
See also
* List of satirists and satires
* List of satirical news websites
* List of satir ...
''
Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...
''. It is led by
Martin Sonneborn
Martin Hans Sonneborn (born 15 May 1965) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP). He is a founder and federal chairman of Die PARTEI. He was editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine ''Titanic'' from 2000 to 2005 and w ...
. In the
2014 European Parliament election
The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014.
It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...
, the party won a seat, marking the first time that a
satirical party has won a seat to the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
. With the
2019 European Parliament election the party gained a second seat, held by
Nico Semsrott
Nico Semsrott (born 11 March 1986) is a German Kabarett artist, politician (independent) and slam poet who was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 2019 as a member of Die PARTEI.
Career Entertainment
In school, he founded the sati ...
.
Name
Partei für Arbeit, Rechtsstaat, Tierschutz, Elitenförderung und basisdemokratische Initiative ("Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroot-Democratic Initiative") is a
backronym
A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The ...
for PARTEI, the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
word for party. The phrase ''die Partei'' ("the party") is evocative of
totalitarian parties—such as the
SED
sed ("stream editor") is a Unix utility that parses and transforms text, using a simple, compact programming language. It was developed from 1973 to 1974 by Lee E. McMahon of Bell Labs,
and is available today for most operating systems.
sed w ...
(the former ruling party of
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
) or the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
—and is thus a tongue-in-cheek reference to the ostensibly totalitarian ambitions of its founders. This is exploited and parodied in advertising in which the SED party hymn, ( en, The Party is always right) is played. Note that the actual text of the song starts with "Die Partei, die Partei, die hat immer recht" ( en, The party, the party is always right) which when spoken can alternatively be parsed as "Die Partei "Die PARTEI", die hat immer recht" ( en, The party "Die PARTEI" it is always right).
Platform
Amongst other things, the PARTEI parodies existing parties' features and election tactics and its parody events sometimes include visiting other parties' events.
The PARTEI refers to itself as a haven for voters disappointed by other parties. It plans to engage in a (self-declared) "
populist
Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed ...
campaign" centering on:
*Rebuild the
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...
and the
Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was the political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its s ...
between East and West Germany, changing east Germany into an "SBZ", a (Special Economic Zone). East Germany was referred to by the same acronym between 1945 and 1949 when it was called (
Soviet Occupation Zone
The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a c ...
). The aforementioned phrase was used to refer to the GDR for years afterwards, especially by right wing politicians who did not wish to acknowledge or recognize its existence. The government even issued a book called about things happening in the GDR
*Reform of the health insurance system
*Reduce working hours and abolish the
Hartz IV
The Hartz concept, also known as Hartz reforms or the Hartz plan, is a set of recommendations submitted by a committee on reforms to the German labour market in 2002. Named after the head of the committee, Peter Hartz, these recommendations went ...
laws and others introduced by "the
neoliberal Schröder
Schröder (Schroeder) is a German language, German surname often associated with the Schröder family. Notable people with the surname include:
* Arthur Schröder (1892–1986), German actor
* Atze Schröder, stage name of German comedian Hubertu ...
regime" (as an alternative to the
Agenda 2010
The Agenda 2010 is a series of reforms planned and executed by the German government in the early 2000s, a Social-Democrats/ Greens coalition at that time, which aimed to reform the German welfare system and labour relations. The declared objectiv ...
)
*Discuss and ratify a new constitution by the people (per article 146 of the
German Constitution
The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The West German Constitution was approved in Bonn on 8 May 1949 and came in ...
)
Sonneborn explains this as follows: "Better that we get those votes than some sort of neo-Nazis". In order to achieve its majority, the PARTEI is willing to form a coalition with any other party other than the
Free Democratic Party because "We don't form coalitions with joke parties".
It formed an "anti-constitutional platform" in an attempt to get the
Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (german: Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz or BfV, often ''Bundesverfassungsschutz'') is Germany's federal domestic intelligence agency. Together with the Landesämter für Verfassungss ...
to surveil die PARTEI. The effort failed when the federal office refused, calling the PARTEI a
frivolous political party
A frivolous party or a joke party is a political party which has been created for the purposes of entertainment or political satire. Such a party may or may not have a serious point behind its activities. This is a list of frivolous political par ...
. The goals of the anti-constitutional platform were:
*Abolish federalism
*Wage a
war of aggression
A war of aggression, sometimes also war of conquest, is a military conflict waged without the justification of self-defense, usually for territorial gain and subjugation.
Wars without international legality (i.e. not out of self-defense nor sanc ...
against
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarchy ...
in order to force democratization and abolish
serfdom
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which develop ...
*Change the first article of the
German Constitution
The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The West German Constitution was approved in Bonn on 8 May 1949 and came in ...
("Human dignity is inviolable") so that CEOs of certain TV channels would not be considered to be possessing human dignity
According to Die PARTEI, political goals are overrated; on the other hand, PARTEI promises a "modern" version of politics—i.e., they will ask for popular opinion and, once in power, will do something completely different.
The party describes itself in the
left-right politics scheme with "There cannot be anything, mustn't be anything and won't be anything left and right of the party!" (This is a reference to a famous sentence by Bavarian Minister-President
Franz Josef Strauß
Franz Josef Strauss ( ; 6 September 1915 – 3 October 1988) was a German politician. He was the long-time chairman of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) from 1961 until 1988, member of the federal cabinet in different positions between ...
: "There must not be a democratically legitimised party right of the
CSU.") The only program points that cannot even remotely be found in other parties' programme are the resurrection of the wall that once divided East and West Germany, something that, according to certain polls, some 20% of all Germans wish for and the introduction of an official "
Knoppers-Break" at German schools at half past 9 (as proposed by German Knoppers-advertisement) as well as some other fun election campaigns such as "A
unicorn
The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead.
In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...
for everyone" ().
The PARTEI often caricatures the slogans of other political parties to emphasize how ridiculous some of them are. For example, "
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
– city in the North!", "overcome contents" (), "Education starts with 'E'" () or "Youth crime – not with us!"
By using satirical ways of running a campaign or making politics, the PARTEI highlights problems in the established system. For instance, the PARTEI successfully effected reforms of
German party financing by selling
100-euro notes (and two postcards) for €105. German political parties are funded by the federal government based on their election results, donations, membership numbers, and income from the sale of merchandise (e.g. t-shirts, stickers). The far-right eurosceptic party
Alternative for Germany
Alternative for Germany (german: link=no, Alternative für Deutschland, AfD; ) is a right-wing populist
*
*
*
*
*
*
* political party in Germany. AfD is known for its opposition to the European Union, as well as immigration to Germany. I ...
(AfD) sold gold bars to its members, taking advantage of the fact that at the time the funding was based on revenue and not profit. This dramatically increased the AfD's federal funding. The PARTEI's campaign "Buy Money!" () led to a successful court decision and a change to party financing laws, closing the loophole.
Despite starting out as a purely satirical party intended to gather
protest vote
A protest vote (also called a blank, null, spoiled, or "none of the above" vote) is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the choice of candidates or the current political system. Protest voting takes a variety of forms a ...
s, Die PARTEI has since adopted some actual policy positions, including
environmentalism
Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seek ...
,
anti-authoritarianism,
pro-Europeanism
Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).Krisztina Arató, Petr Kaniok (editors). ''Euroscepticism and European Integration''. Politi ...
, and some others described as
left-leaning
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
.
The party has also been described as
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humani ...
. In their 2021 party program, Die PARTEI supports the implementation of
universal basic income
Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive an unconditional transfer payment, that is, without a means test or need to work. It would be received independently of a ...
.
Early history
Background
''
Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...
'', whose employees would go on to populate the ranks of the PARTEI, began its political activities even before
German reunification
German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
in 1990 — it campaigned against it. As ''Titanic'' co-founder
Chlodwig Poth explained, the magazine sought to parody the ''
Bild
''Bild'' (or ''Bild-Zeitung'', ; ) is a German tabloid newspaper published by Axel Springer SE. The paper is published from Monday to Saturday; on Sundays, its sister paper ''Bild am Sonntag'' ("''Bild on Sunday''") is published instead, which ...
'' newspaper's
masthead, which read "The unity of our fatherland in freedom, that is our mission". ''Titanic'' has had the slogan "The definitive division of Germany – this is our mission" in its masthead since December 1989.
At the heart of the PARTEI's political efforts lies the aim of resurrecting the Berlin Wall and all other border fortifications along the border with the former German Democratic Republic. This goal has however been hidden away in the last point of the party manifesto and was characterized by party chairman Martin Sonneborn as merely a "populist vehicle". He held out the prospect of a referendum after the PARTEI's accession to power. In order to raise the necessary finances for the erection of the Wall members are requested to donate the proceeds of their savings contracts. Sonneborn described the project as follows: "I give you and all the German public my word of honor, I repeat—my word of honor—that under us there will be no
order to shoot at the Wall". (This is a reference to a false statement by former
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
SED party leader
Walter Ulbricht
Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht (; 30 June 18931 August 1973) was a German communist politician. Ulbricht played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later (after spending the years of Nazi rule in ...
who in 1961 claimed that "Nobody has the intention of building a wall" shortly before the wall was actually built and a reference to "Waterkant-Gate" of politician
Uwe Barschel
Uwe Barschel (13 May 1944 – 11 October 1987) was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Minister-President in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. Having assumed office of Minister-President at the age of 38, Ba ...
.)
The territory of the former GDR is thus to become a "Special Cultivation Zone" separated from the rest of Germany by edificial means in order to emphasize the visionary idea of such a zone and is to benefit from a de-bureaucratized and streamlined administrative system. Additionally, the PARTEI is demanding health care reform, protection of natural resources and a program for reduction of working time as an alternative to
Agenda 2010
The Agenda 2010 is a series of reforms planned and executed by the German government in the early 2000s, a Social-Democrats/ Greens coalition at that time, which aimed to reform the German welfare system and labour relations. The declared objectiv ...
, an unpopular set of labor market reforms introduced under Chancellor Schroeder in 2003. It also supports improved co-determination rights for citizens, in particular it demands that a new constitution be passed on the basis of wide-ranging discussions, to be ratified by the people (in line with article 146 of the constitution).
Founding
The PARTEI was founded on 2 August 2004, by the editors of ''
Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...
'', a
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
-based satirical magazine. The leadership of the PARTEI and the ''Titanic'' editorial team are close; former ''Titanic ''editors-in-chief include PARTEI chairman,
Martin Sonneborn
Martin Hans Sonneborn (born 15 May 1965) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP). He is a founder and federal chairman of Die PARTEI. He was editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine ''Titanic'' from 2000 to 2005 and w ...
, and current honorary chairman, Oliver Maria Schmitt. Despite the fact that the PARTEI's official headquarters are located at Mauerstraße in Berlin, the fax number given turns out to be the same as that of ''Titanic'' editorial offices. ''Titanic'' is the official print organ of the PARTEI.
''Titanic'' has a history of participating in election campaigns. For the
2002 German federal election
Federal elections were held in Germany on 22 September 2002 to elect the members of the 15th Bundestag. Incumbent Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's centre-left "red-green" governing coalition retained a narrow majority, and the Social Democratic Pa ...
it set up a stand claiming to be the
Free Democratic Party and shouted racist slogans. In January 2003, ''Titanic'' staff pretended to be candidates of the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Fo ...
(SPD) in
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...
. For the 2003 elections in
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
it surrendered in the name of the Bavarian Social Democrats (''"SPD: Wir geben auf"'').
Participation in German politics
The PARTEI has participated in four federal elections (2005, 2009, 2013 and 2017) and most state and municipal elections since 2005, achieving its best results in a few districts in Berlin and Hamburg without however doing well enough to gain any seats.
German federal election, 2005
In June 2005, the PARTEI joined forces with the
Anarchist Pogo Party in an alliance called ''Zweckbündnis'' ("
marriage of convenience
A marriage of convenience is a marriage contracted for reasons other than that of love and commitment. Instead, such a marriage is entered into for personal gain, or some other sort of strategic purpose, such as a political marriage. There are ...
") for the
2005 federal election.
One campaign tactic was to auction its advertising times in German television (all German political parties are allotted TV time for campaign spots for free) on
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
. An allusion to a scandal of masked advertising on public television, the (mostly satirical), TV spots were presented in the corporate design of a German airline company,
Hapag-Lloyd Express
Hapag-Lloyd Express (previously also marketed as ''HLX.com'') was a no-frills, high-frequency, express airline based in Langenhagen, Germany. It operated services within Germany and to destinations in Europe.
In January 2007 it combined its op ...
(HLX).
Nominating candidates only in the cities of
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
and
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, the PARTEI gained 10,379 votes (0.022% of all votes on national level).
German federal election, 2009
Die PARTEI, along with several other parties which had already participated in earlier federal and state election, was refused permission to take part in the
2009 federal elections.
In July 2009 Roderich Egeler, ''Bundeswahlleiter'' (
Federal Returning Officer
In Germany, the Federal Returning Officer ("Bundeswahlleiter") is the Returning Officer responsible for overseeing elections on the federal level. The Federal Returning Officer and his deputy are appointed indefinitely by the Federal Minister of ...
) and president of the
Federal Statistical Office of Germany
The Federal Statistical Office (german: Statistisches Bundesamt, shortened ''Destatis'') is a federal authority of Germany. It reports to the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
The Office is responsible for collecting, processing, presenting and ...
, denied official party status and the approval for participation in the 2009 federal election. He criticised lack of seriousness and organisation within the party. He claimed his decision was based on a fax by Die PARTEI which expressed that there is just one single ''Landesverband'' (organisation in one of the states). Die PARTEI rejoined that no such fax existed and announced legal action. T-shirts saying "Where is my vote,
Wahlleiter?" were sold as part of a protest campaign and the party demanded that Egeler resign after he did not revise his decision.
On 13 August 2009, a movie called ''Die PARTEI – Der Film'' was released in theaters.
On 3 November 2009 the party launched a challenge to the validity of the 2009 federal elections at the
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...
. Die PARTEI also saw itself validated by Bundestag President
Norbert Lammert
Norbert Lammert (born 16 November 1948) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as the 12th President of the Bundestag from 2005 to 2017.
Early life and education
The son of a baker, Lammert attended gymnasium ...
's maiden speech in which he criticized the election registration process, because "representatives of the established parties decide whether or not to register the competition". The
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, prom ...
's report on Germany's 2009 elections suggested reforming election registration in order to allow unregistered parties to appeal before elections. On 6 December 2010, the party filed an official complaint with the
Federal Constitutional Court
The Federal Constitutional Court (german: link=no, Bundesverfassungsgericht ; abbreviated: ) is the supreme constitutional court for the Federal Republic of Germany, established by the constitution or Basic Law () of Germany. Since its inc ...
. It was officially accepted in February 2011 but ultimately the court rejected it in April 2011 on the grounds that the party chairman as the complainant did not have the necessary right to complain.
State elections
Die PARTEI garnered 0.17% of the votes cast in the state elections in Germany's largest state,
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...
, on 9 May 2010. The candidate for the office of prime minister was forensic biologist
Mark Benecke who was supported by several well-known artists. Many German-speaking celebrities are PARTEI members, some of whom participate as their candidates during election time, among them
Rocko Schamoni,
Heinz Strunk,
Mark Benecke and the rappers Maxim and Nico from the Berlin hip-hop group
K.I.Z.
Rodrigo González,
Hella von Sinnen
Hella Kemper (born 2 February 1959), known by her stage name Hella von Sinnen (lit. ''Hella out of her mind'', making pun of the aristocratic "von"), is a German entertainer and television presenter. She has been a regular on several TV shows o ...
,
Dirk Bach
Dirk Bach (23 April 1961 – 1 October 2012) was a German actor, comedian and television presenter, best known as the co-host of ''Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus!'', the German version of '' I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!''.
C ...
, and
Guildo Horn
Horst Heinz Köhler (born 15 February 1963), known under his stage name Guildo Horn (), is a German Schlager singer. He is best known for his eccentric stage persona, which includes outrageous clothes and extroverted antics.
At the Eurovision ...
all had their pictures taken with top-flight officials from the PARTEI to express their support during the 2010 state election.
Die PARTEI participated in state elections in Berlin, Hamburg and Baden-Württemberg in 2011. In the
2011 Hamburg state election held on 20 February 2011, Die PARTEI won 23,994 votes (0.7% of the total). In
St. Pauli
St. Pauli (Sankt Pauli; ) is a quarter of the city of Hamburg belonging to the centrally located Hamburg-Mitte borough. Situated on the right bank of the Elbe river, the nearby Landungsbrücken is a northern part of the port of Hamburg. St. ...
the party came in sixth place, winning 1,450 votes (4.9%), after SPD (37.4%), Greens (21.5%), The Left (20.1%),
Pirate Party
Pirate Party is a label adopted by Political party, political parties around the world. Pirate parties support Civil and political rights, civil rights, direct democracy (including e-democracy) or alternatively Participatory democracy, partici ...
(6.7%) and CDU (5.8%). In five districts (Hammerbrook, St. Pauli, Sternschanze, Veddel and Kleiner Grasbrook) the PARTEI beat the well-established FDP. The PARTEI did best in the Kleiner Grasbrook district, where it attracted 39 votes, or 5.3%, drawing level in the district with Germany's largest party, the
Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
City council elections
Die PARTEI took part in municipal elections in North Rhine Westphalia on 30 August 2009, garnering 0.69% of the votes in
Krefeld
Krefeld ( , ; li, Krieëvel ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, i ...
. On 17 May 2011, Manuel Lindlar, who had originally been elected to the
Leverkusen
Leverkusen () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the south, Leverkusen borders the city of Cologne, and to the north the state capital, Düsseldorf.
With about 161,000 inhabitants, Leverkusen is on ...
city council via the election list of the "
Die Linke" party, defected to the PARTEI. In 2012 Dirk Scholl, also former member of Die Linke, defected to the PARTEI in the city council of
Saarlouis
Saarlouis (; french: link=no, Sarrelouis, ; formerly Sarre-Libre and Saarlautern) is a town in Saarland, Germany, capital of the district of Saarlouis. In 2020, the town had a population of 34,409. Saarlouis, as the name implies, is located on t ...
. In the elections for the city council of
Lübeck
Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...
in May 2013, the PARTEI won one seat. In the election for the city council of
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
in October 2015, the candidate
Mark Benecke received 7.22% of the votes. The vote had been postponed once because candidate
Henriette Reker
Henriette Reker (born 9 December 1956) is a German lawyer and independent politician. She is known for her pro-immigration stance and for being the victim of an assassination attempt in 2015. A day after the attack, Reker was elected mayor of C ...
was injured in an assassination attempt.
German federal election, 2013
![Infostand Die Partei Berlin 2013](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Infostand_Die_Partei_Berlin_2013.jpg)
On 22 September 2013, Die Partei reached 0.2% of German voters in the
2013 federal election.
German federal election, 2017
On 3 September 2017, members of Die PARTEI assumed full control over 31 secret
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
groups dedicated to the
AfD, a right-wing party, by infiltrating those groups and ascending to the rank of a group administrator. This was made public by altering the group names, removing all other administrators, making those groups public and uploading a video which shows a member of Die PARTEI, saying that all people in this group are now being fooled by real people instead of robots. According to the video, these 31 groups encompassed about 180,000 members.
Die PARTEI gained 1% of all votes, five times the turn out of 2013.
In November 2020 MP
Marco Bülow (former member of the
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been the ...
) joined the PARTEI, which entered the Bundestag for the first time in its history.
EU politics
In the
May 2014 European Parliament election, the PARTEI managed to get elected to the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
with 180,000 votes (0.6% of the total in Germany).
Top candidate Sonneborn announced that all candidates from their list, starting with him, would take the seat for one month, then retire and thus get the most money out of the European Union. He also said he believed that they were "not the craziest party in the European Parliament".
Its campaign slogan was "For Europe, Against Europe", which Sonneborn explained that the PARTEI was inclusive—it welcomed the 70% of Germans opinion polls said were not interested in Europe, "But we also say yes to Europe so everybody opposed to or in favour of Europe can vote for us".
[ Specific campaign pledges included promising to "build a wall around ]Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, put Chancellor Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...
on a show trial in the Berlin Olympic stadium
The Olympiastadion (; en, Olympic Stadium) is a sports stadium at Olympiapark Berlin in Berlin, Germany. It was originally built by Werner March for the 1936 Summer Olympics. During the Olympics, the record attendance was thought to be over 100 ...
and to frack the rotund politicians Sigmar Gabriel
Sigmar Hartmut Gabriel (born 12 September 1959) is a German politician who was the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2018 and the vice-chancellor of Germany from 2013 to 2018. He was Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germa ...
and Peter Altmaier
Peter Altmaier (born 18 June 1958) is a German lawyer and CDU politician who served as Acting Minister of Finance from 2017 to 2018 and as Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy from 2018 to 2021. He previously served as Federal Mi ...
for cheap gas".[
In the 2019 European Parliament election, the PARTEI won nearly 900,000 votes or 2.4% of the German total, thus winning two seats which are held by Martin Sonneborn and the Kabarett artist ]Nico Semsrott
Nico Semsrott (born 11 March 1986) is a German Kabarett artist, politician (independent) and slam poet who was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 2019 as a member of Die PARTEI.
Career Entertainment
In school, he founded the sati ...
. Semsrott left the party in January 2021 over a design draft for a T-Shirt Sonneborn had shared and which contained a racial slur.
Sub-organizations
The LISTE – the PARTEI student organization
Between 2005 and 2009 the PARTEI's student organizations began to make themselves felt in student parliaments in Bochum, Aachen, Berlin, Dortmund and Düsseldorf. In most cases the groups branded themselves as List for Grass-Roots Democratic Initiatives, Education, Animal Breeding and Promotion of Elites (German acronym LISTE—Liste für basisdemokratische Initiative, Studium, Tierzucht und Elitenförderung). The student organization has 8,000 members nationwide, according to its own reports.
During the 2009/10 legislature the PARTEI student organization was able to advance its own man to the post of the President of the Düsseldorf student parliament. In the 2010/11 legislature the PARTEI student organization now controls the post of assistant President of the student parliament at the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen University of Applied Sciences, their LISTE standing for "List for Integration, Freedom from university fees, Technology and Promotion of Elites"). On 20 April 2011, Tobias M. Bölz, chairman of LISTE at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; german: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie) is a public research university in Karlsruhe, Germany. The institute is a national research center of the Helmholtz Association.
KIT was created in 2009 w ...
was elected to the chairmanship of the executive committee of the student body, having been president of the student parliament in the previous legislative period.
The Hintner Youth
In line with the motto, "We need a children's and youth wing, because we need a children's and youth wing!", the Hintner Youth, named after the PARTEI's general secretary Thomas Hintner, was founded on 5 June 2005, during the state conference in Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...
. The Hintner Youth's official greeting is, "Hi Hintner!", thus alluding to the Nazi Party's Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...
and greeting
Greeting is an act of communication in which human beings intentionally make their presence known to each other, to show attention to, and to suggest a type of relationship (usually cordial) or social status (formal or informal) between indiv ...
.
The Hintner Youth's uniform, with its blue shirt, gray trousers and red scarf are reminiscent of East Germany's Pioneer Organization
The Pioneer Organization ( ro, Organizaţia Pionierilor) was a pioneer movement in Communist Romania, founded on April 30, 1949.
Most students joined the organization while in the second grade and remained pioneers throughout eighth grade, the ...
and the Free German Youth
The Free German Youth (german: Freie Deutsche Jugend; FDJ) is a youth movement in Germany. Formerly, it was the official youth movement of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany.
The organization was meant ...
(FDJ).
The PARTEI school
The PARTEI runs a school in Schwerin
Schwerin (; Mecklenburgisch dialect, Mecklenburgian Low German: ''Swerin''; Latin: ''Suerina'', ''Suerinum'') is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Germany, second-largest city of the northeastern States of Germany, German ...
, which by allusion to the official SED schools is simply known as the "PARTEI school". The school's purpose is not only to improve PARTEI official's political literacy but also to provide general educational programs, including IT and foreign languages. The school's director is Heike Zeilinger, with Ulf Mittelstädt and Michael Padefke as heads of the individual departments. According to the PARTEI the school has no real estate of its own.
State organizations
The chairpersons of the German states are:
See also
*List of political parties in Germany
This article lists political parties in Germany.
The Federal Republic of Germany has a plural multi party system. The largest by members and parliament seats are the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), with its sister party, the Christian Social ...
*List of frivolous political parties
A frivolous party or a joke party is a political party which has been created for the purposes of entertainment or political satire. Such a party may or may not have a serious point behind its activities. This is a list of frivolous political par ...
References
Literature
* Martin Sonneborn: ''Das PARTEI Buch. Wie man in Deutschland eine Partei gründet und die Macht übernimmt.'' Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln 2009,
External links
Official website
(in German)
titanic-magazin.de
(in German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Partei, Die
2004 establishments in Germany
Joke political parties in Germany
Parties represented in the European Parliament
Political parties established in 2004
Political parties in Germany
Pro-European political parties in Germany
Universal basic income in Germany