Instead of "getting bogged down in the nitty-gritty," the party's content had to be brought to parliaments. These are no longer the sole concerns of the internet scene. The meeting in bochum will focus on economic policy in particular.
Lauer speaks of a historic opportunity: "the generation socialized by the internet can start marching through the institutions."But this was allowed to be far more difficult than thought at the last party conference in neumunster. At that time, the pirates elected a new federal executive board in april, which was on the verge of collapse in october. The two committee members julia schramm and matthias schrade announced their resignation. Schrade pointed the finger at johannes ponader – cooperation with the political leader was not possible for him.
After that, the chairman bernd schlomer held the rows together with great care. He, too, was critical of ponader, but then met with him for a settlement talk. Since then, ponader has kept a low profile in public. The buvo, as the party calls its federal executive committee for short, wants to keep the personnel squabbles away from the party conference. But everyone knows: the course and results of the meeting next weekend are completely open.
"The party congress is autonomous," says outgoing assessor matthias schrade, known as "kungler," who has taken care of the organization. He expects about 2000 participants, there are no delegates. Every member can also come spontaneously and has full voting rights.
"I don't think that the youngest tensions in the federal executive committee will influence the party conference," said schrade now. "People are eager to make program, and they will do so."The members have submitted more than 650 motions, which are colorfully juxtaposed, the plea for clean drinking water follows the demand for the abolition of the civil service. The submissions have a volume of more than 1400 pages.
One result is already certain: not all of the requests will be dealt with. So it may well be that the pirates go into the federal election without a comprehensive program. Schrade doesn't think that's so tragic: "I'm convinced that people won't vote for us because of a certain position on an issue, but because they want a new political style."
But in the sometimes heated twitter biotope, party members continue to turn on each other and pick on each other. "The pobelpirat without any clue is ubrigens …" – such insults are not rare. When lauer speaks out in favor of a permanent members' meeting on the internet instead of traditional party conventions, deputy chairman sebastian nerz harshly rejects this in a tweet: "undemocratic nonsense.".
Party leader schlomer tries it with demonstrative calmness. He, who likes to call himself the "chief controller" of the pirates, i.E. Someone who is supposed to keep the party together organizationally and prevent major mishaps, exaggerates the party's dilemma. The leadership should not lead, the grassroots should set the direction.
There are more than 34 000 members. Their needs are as varied as the 152 working groups – from the "future in the countryside" working group to the "queeraten" and "nuklearia" working groups. The party conference should also be colorful, if brandenburg pirate anke domscheit-berg has her way: she calls for knitting and declares on twitter: "by the way, you can knit or hook anything, chair legs, plugs, standing microphones, scaffolding, railings".