Die Partei für Arbeit, Rechtsstaat, Tierschutz, Elitenförderung und basisdemokratische Initiative ("The Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroots Democratic Initiative"), or Die PARTEI ("The PARTY"), is a German political party. It was founded in 2004 by the editors of the German satirical magazine Titanic. It is led by Martin Sonneborn. In the 2014 European Parliament election, the party won a seat, marking the first time that a satirical party has won a seat to the European Parliament. With the 2019 European Parliament election, the party gained a second seat, held by Nico Semsrott. The party kept these two seats at the 2024 European Parliament election.
Name Partei für Arbeit, Rechtsstaat, Tierschutz, Elitenförderung und basisdemokratische Initiative ("Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroots Democratic Initiative") is a backronym for PARTEI, the German word for party. The phrase die Partei ("the party") is evocative of totalitarian parties—such as the SED (the former ruling party of East Germany) or the Nazi Party—and is thus a tongue-in-cheek reference to the ostensibly totalitarian ambitions of its founders. This is exploited and parodied in advertising in which the SED party hymn, () is played. Note that the actual text of the song starts with "Die Partei, die Partei, die hat immer recht" () which when spoken can alternatively be parsed as "Die Partei 'Die PARTEI', die hat immer recht" ().
Platform Amongst other things, the PARTEI parodies existing parties' features and election tactics and its parody events sometimes include visiting other parties' events.
The PARTEI refers to itself as a haven for voters disappointed by other parties. It plans to engage in a (self-declared) "populist campaign" centering on: Rebuild the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain between East and West Germany, changing east Germany into an "SBZ", a (Special Economic Zone). East Germany was referred to by the same acronym between 1945 and 1949 when it was called (Soviet Occupation Zone). The aforementioned phrase was used to refer to the GDR for years afterwards, especially by right wing politicians who did not wish to acknowledge or recognize its existence. The government even issued a book called about things happening in the GDR. Introduce an official "Knoppers break" in German schools (to take place at 09:30) Reform of the health insurance system Reduce working hours and abolish the Hartz IV laws and others introduced by "the neoliberal Schröder regime" (as an alternative to the Agenda 2010) Discuss and ratify a new constitution by the people (per article 146 of the German Constitution)
Sonneborn explains this as follows: "Better that we get those votes than some sort of neo-Nazis." In order to achieve its majority, the PARTEI is willing to form a coalition with any other party other than the Free Democratic Party because "We don't form coalitions with joke parties."
It formed an "anti-constitutional platform" in an attempt to get the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution to surveil PARTEI. The effort failed when the federal office refused, calling the PARTEI a frivolous political party. The goals of the anti-constitutional platform were:
Abolish federalism Wage a war of aggression against Liechtenstein in order to force democratization and abolish serfdom Change the first article of the German Constitution ("Human dignity is inviolable") so that CEOs of certain TV channels would not be considered to be possessing human dignity
According to Die PARTEI, political goals are overrated; on the other hand, PARTEI promises a "modern" version of politics—i.e., 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!" (This is a reference to a famous sentence by Bavarian Minister-President Franz Josef Strauß: "There must not be a democratically legitimised party right of the CSU.")
The PARTEI often caricatures the slogans of other political parties in their own campaigns. Examples include "Hamburgcity in the North!", "overcome contents" (), "Education starts with 'E'" (), "Youth crimenot with us!", and "A unicorn for everyone" ().
The PARTEI has used satire to highlight problems with German party financing that successfully led to reforms. German political parties are funded by the federal government based on election results, donations, membership numbers, and income from the sale of merchandise (e.g. t-shirts, stickers). The far-right Eurosceptic party Alternative for Germany (AfD) sold gold bars to its members, as at the time the funding was based on revenue and not profit, dramatically increasing the AfD's share of federal funding. In 2014, the PARTEI launched its "Buy Money!" () campaign, selling 100-euro notes (and two postcards) for €105. In 2015, the PARTEI sold one thousand "discounted" 100-euro notes for 80 euros each. Both campaigns criticized Germany's party financing system that were being exploited by the far-right. The campaigns led to a successful court decision and a change to party financing laws, closing the loophole.
Despite starting out as a purely satirical party intended to gather protest votes, Die PARTEI has since adopted some actual policy positions, including environmentalism, anti-authoritarianism, pro-Europeanism, and some others described as left-leaning. The party has also been described as humanist. In their 2021 party program, Die PARTEI supports the implementation of universal basic income.
History
Background Titanic, whose employees would go on to populate the ranks of the PARTEI, began its political activities even before German reunification in 1990 — it campaigned against it. As Titanic co-founder Chlodwig Poth explained, the magazine sought to parody the Bild newspaper's masthead, which read "The unity of our fatherland in freedom, that is our mission". Titanic has had the slogan "The definitive division of Germany – this is our mission" in its masthead since December 1989.
At the heart of the PARTEI's political efforts lies the aim of resurrecting the Berlin Wall and all other border fortifications along the border with the former German Democratic Republic. This goal has however been hidden away in the last point of the party manifesto and was characterized by party chairman Martin Sonneborn as merely a "populist vehicle". He held out the prospect of a referendum after the PARTEI's accession to power. In order to raise the necessary finances for the erection of the Wall members are requested to donate the proceeds of their savings contracts. Sonneborn described the project as follows: "I give you and all the German public my word of honor, I repeat—my word of honor—that under us there will be no order to shoot at the Wall". (This is a reference to a false statement by former East Germany SED party leader Walter Ulbricht who in 1961 claimed that "Nobody has the intention of building a wall" shortly before the wall was actually built and a reference to "Waterkant-Gate" of politician Uwe Barschel.)
The territory of the former GDR is thus to become a "Special Cultivation Zone" separated from the rest of Germany by edificial means in order to emphasize the visionary idea of such a zone and is to benefit from a de-bureaucratized and streamlined administrative system. Additionally, the PARTEI is demanding health care reform, protection of natural resources and a program for reduction of working time as an alternative to Agenda 2010, an unpopular set of labor market reforms introduced under Chancellor Schroeder in 2003. It also supports improved co-determination rights for citizens, in particular it demands that a new constitution be passed on the basis of wide-ranging discussions, to be ratified by the people (in line with article 146 of the constitution).
Founding The PARTEI was founded on 2 August 2004, by the editors of Titanic, a Frankfurt-based satirical magazine. The leadership of the PARTEI and the Titanic editorial team are close; former Titanic editors-in-chief include PARTEI chairman, Martin Sonneborn, and current honorary chairman, Oliver Maria Schmitt. Despite the fact that the PARTEI's official headquarters are located at Mauerstraße in Berlin, the fax number given turns out to be the same as that of Titanic editorial offices. Titanic is the official print organ of the PARTEI.
Titanic has a history of participating in election campaigns. For the 2002 German federal election it set up a stand claiming to be the Free Democratic Party and shouted racist slogans. In January 2003, Titanic staff pretended to be candidates of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Hesse. For the 2003 elections in Bavaria it surrendered in the name of the Bavarian Social Democrats ("SPD: Wir geben auf").
German federal election, 2005 In June 2005, the PARTEI joined forces with the Anarchist Pogo Party in an alliance called Zweckbündnis ("marriage of convenience") for the 2005 federal election.
One campaign tactic was to auction its advertising times in German television (all German political parties are allotted TV time for campaign spots for free) on eBay. An allusion to a scandal of masked advertising on public television, the (mostly satirical) TV spots were presented in the corporate design of a German airline company, Hapag-Lloyd Express (HLX).
Nominating candidates 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 Die PARTEI, along with several other parties which had already participated in earlier federal and state election, was refused permission to take part in the 2009 federal elections.
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 2009 federal election. 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 legal action. T-shirts saying "Where is my vote, Wahlleiter?" were sold as part of a protest campaign and the party demanded that Egeler resign after he did not revise his decision.
On 13 August 2009, a movie called Die PARTEI – Der Film was released in theaters.
On 3 November 2009, the party launched a challenge to the validity of the 2009 federal elections at the Bundestag. Die PARTEI also saw itself validated by Bundestag President Norbert Lammert's maiden speech in which he criticized the election registration process, because "representatives of the established parties decide whether or not to register the competition". The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's report on Germany's 2009 elections suggested reforming election registration in order to allow unregistered parties to appeal before elections. On 6 December 2010, the party filed an official complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court. It was officially accepted in February 2011 but ultimately the court rejected it in April 2011 on the grounds that the party chairman as the complainant did not have the necessary right to complain.
State elections