Die PARTEI
Die PARTEI (English: the [political] party) is a populist political party in Germany founded in 2004 by editors of the German satirical magazine Titanic. Leader of the Party is Martin Sonneborn.
The name
"PARTEI" is an acronym for Partei für Arbeit, Rechtsstaat, Tierschutz, Elitenförderung und basisdemokratische Initiative (Party for Work, Rule-of-Law, Protection of Animals, Advancement of Elites, and Grassroot-Democratic Initiative). At the same time, "Partei" is German for party. Usage of the definite article ("die PARTEI") is evocative of totalitarian parties (see Socialist Unity Party of Germany and National Socialist German Workers Party) and is therefore a tongue-in-cheek reference to the totalitarian ambitions of the founders of "Die PARTEI".
Goals
The party refers to itself as a harbor for voters disappointed by other parties. It plans to engage in a (self-declared) "populist campaign" centering on
- rebuilding the Berlin Wall.
- a reform of the health insurance system
- a reduction in working hours along with the abolishment of the Hartz IV laws and others introduced by "the neoliberal Schröder regime" (as an alternative to the Agenda 2010)
- a new constitution discussed and ratified by the people (according to artikel 146 German constitution).
Within the party an "Anti-constitutional-platform" was formed, in an attempt to force the German intelligence agency to observe the party. The latter, however, refused to do so, considering the PARTEI a frivolous political party. The goals of the Anti-constitutional-platform:[1]
- abolition of federalism
- a war of aggression against Liechtenstein in order to force democratization and abolish serfdom.[2]
- that the first article of the German constitution ("Human dignity is inviolable") be changed such that CEOs of certain TV channels would not possess human dignity.
According to Die PARTEI, goals in politics are overrated. They promise a "modern" version of politics: 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!" The only program point that cannot even remotely be found in other parties' programm is 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.
All in all, the PARTEI is more a satirical action to promote the popularity of the Titanic magazine than a real political party. Their official goals are situated between populism and pure nonsense.
In electoral campaigns the PARTEI often caricatures slogans of other parties in order to show how nonsensical some of them are. Examples are "Hamburg – city in the North!", "Education starts with 'E'" or "Youth crime – not with us!".[3]
Die PARTEI and Titanic magazine
The Titanic, a satirical magazine that is decidedly left-leaning but quite drastically targets people from all walks of life, is the party's official media organ. Titanic writers already took part in several elections in Germany. At the German federal election, 2002 they put up a stand, supposedly for the Free Democratic Party shouting racist slogans, in January 2003, several Titanic authors, pretended to be candidates of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Hesse. At the elections 2003 in Bavaria Titanic surrendered in the name of the Bavarian Social Democrats ("SPD: Wir geben auf"), who always face the superiority of the Christian Social Union.
German federal election, 2005
In June 2005, die Partei agreed with the Anarchist Pogo Party to join forces in an alliance, Zweckbündnis, for the German federal election, 2005.
The most spectacular campaign action of the party was to sell its advertising times in German television (every party participating at German federal elections gets some minutes of TV time for campaign spots for free) at eBay. As a reference to a scandal of masked advertising in public television earlier the year, the party's – mostly satirical – TV spots were presented in the corporate design of a German airline company.
Candidating only in the cities of Hamburg and Berlin, the PARTEI gained 10,379 votes (0.022% of all votes on national level).
German federal election, 2009
In July 2009 Roderich Egeler, Bundeswahlleiter (Federal Returning Officer) and president of the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, denied official party status and the approval for participation in the German federal election, 2009. 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 to take legal steps. T-Shirts with the imprint "Where is my vote, Wahlleiter?" were sold as part of a protest campaign and the party demanded that Egeler resigns after he did not revise his decision.[4]
On 13th of August, a movie called "Die PARTEI – Der Film" was released in theaters.[5]
German state election North-Rhine Westphalia, 2010
On May 9, 2010, Die PARTEI reached 0.17% in the elections of Germany's largest state North Rhine-Westphalia. Candidate for the office of prime minister was forensic biologist Mark Benecke. He was supported by several well-known artists.
See also
References
External links
- Official site (German)
- Titanic (German)