This week the German Pirate Party reached an impressive milestone as it hit double digits in the polls for the national elections. With one in ten Germans embracing the ideas of the young party, the Pirates are on course to gain serious influence in one of the world's major political arenas.

With the historic win in the Berlin state parliament elections just four weeks behind us, the German Pirate Party continues to gain momentum.

Recent polls for the federal elections show that the Pirate Party is now polling double digits across the country. With 10 percent of the total vote, the Pirates would become the third largest party in the country if federal elections were being held this week.

This means that the good run in Berlin, where nearly 9 percent of the people voted for The Pirate Party, hasn’t gone unnoticed by the rest of the country. On the contrary, support for the Pirates only increased.

Perhaps even more impressively, it also shows that the party nearly quintupled their voter base since the last federal elections two years ago. With 845,904 votes at the 2009 federal elections, the Pirate Party got stuck at 2 percent of the vote, where 5 percent was needed to enter the Bundestag.

“This is a landmark event,” godfather and founder of Pirate Party movement Rick Falkvinge told TorrentFreak commenting on the news. “Getting to mainstream awareness takes metric tons of work. Getting to 10% in a poll is an achievement that only some five parties achieve per country in an entire century.”

Pirate Poll

In common with all other Pirate Parties across the world, the German Pirate Party’s policy focuses around three pillars; shared culture, free knowledge, and fundamental privacy. Based on the recent election and poll results, these key points appeal to a wide audience.

Although the results of the polls are promising, there is still a long way to go before new federal elections are held in Germany. The difficult task for the Pirates is to keep the momentum going. However, Rick Falkvinge thinks that this week’s poll results are a clear sign that they are on course.

“This isn’t an election result, but it is still something that starts to shift policy making away from neomercantilistic monopolies and toward the free exchange of TICKS (tools, ideas, culture, knowledge, and sentiments) that build the next generation of industries. That’s good for every country and for the youth in particular.”

Despite being just five years young, the German Pirate Party has already booked several successes. The party currently has more than 150 members in elected offices across Germany and with their recent surge in popularity this appears to be just the beginning.