The upstart German Pirate Party took just under 9% of the electoral vote in Sunday’s Berlin elections, winning 15 seats in the 149-seat state parliament. For the most part, they’ve been campaigning on a platform of free Wi-Fi, free public transportation, and a lower voting age. Just like real pirates.

I mean obviously the promise of free stuff played really well with the youth vote, but the Pirates have yet to propose much in the way concrete changes they hope to make in the state parliament.

Said 27-year old Martin Delbius, one of the 15 newly elected Pirate representatives:

To be honest, we don’t know how we’ll do this. This is something totally new. We just know people believed in our issues. We have to figure out how to solve problems now.

Another Pirate candidate, Andreas Baum, recently estimated Berlin’s debt at “many, many millions.” Which isn’t exactly wrong, but it’s a worryingly vague coming from a dude participating in state parliament (the city currently owes €64 billion).

And you know what that haphazard, populist sort of rhetoric reminds me of?

Pirates.

[Source: The Local, The Economist]