- BERLIN: Support for Germany's upstart Pirate Party has risen strongly following a regional election breakthrough last month, a poll showed Wednesday, a performance that the party said shows it has arrived as a national force.
The Stern magazine poll put support for the Pirates, so far associated largely with calls for Internet freedom, at 8 percent. That would be enough, if there were an election, to give them seats in parliament and ahead of two of Germany's five established parties.
Other surveys in recent days showed similar results. The Pirates barely featured in national polling until they captured 8.9 percent of the vote in a mid-September state election in Berlin. That gave them their first seats in a regional legislature.
"Eight percent in a national poll is no longer one-day hype - this is the start of fundamental political change," party leader Sebastian Nerz told reporters in Berlin