Lukas "erotic nerd"
Editorial, Article Wednesday, September 30th 2009

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As you might have heard, Germany elected a new parliament last Sunday. Which in turn designates the ruling parties and the opposition. We have a very complex voting system, which often leads to some strange coalitions. Like a left wing and a right wing party working together.

The big question, for gaming nerds like us at least, is what will this mean for the state of video games in Germany? I will give you a little background on the different parties that made it (or sadly not) into parliament and a prediction what may happen.

CDU – Christian Democratic Union

The CDU received 33.8% of the votes. They are coalescing with the FDP to form the leading power in the parliament.

They are the largest political force in Germany, and also the most conservative. Whenever there’s a story about some political nutjob wanting to BAN THE VIDJA GAMES!!!! you can be 90% sure that he is a member of the CDU or its sister party the CSU (Christian Social Union). The CSU is the even more conservative Bavarian version of the CDU. They wanted their own party down there because the CDU wasn’t Christian enough or something.

Part of its political programme is the goal to ban the sale and production of “killergames” in Germany. And guess who invented that term? Yes, it was them. They say that killergames have the same influence on the society as drugs and child pornography. Seriously.

SPD – Socialist Party of Germany

The SPD got 23% of the votes. They coalesced with the CDU in the last legislation period, but only because no other combination would have had the necessary majority to rule. So now they are in the opposition.

As the name implies, they are a left wing party. In the last years they have earned themselves the nickname “Traitorparty”, since they didn’t object a number of bills that where against their socialist programme.

In terms of video games they follow a similar line as the CDU, but not as radical. The basic cannon is still BAN ALL KILLERGAMES!

FDP – Free Democratic Party

The FDP had 14.6% of the votes in the election, which in turn lead to a coalition with the CDU.

You can count them as a liberal party, that wants to “strengthen the freedom and the responsibilities of the single individual.” In general they are against to much regulation from the state. They have been involved in the German government longer and more often then any other party,

Being a liberal party, they have been against tougher regulations of video games. But since they are now part of the ruling coalition, that stance may get forgotten in favour of the stronger coalition partner.

Bündnis 90/Die Grünen – Green Party

The Green Party received 10.7% of the votes and thus continues its work in the opposition.

The party was formed in the mid seventies, by students that where angered because the established parties ignored the topic of environmentalism up to that point and the ongoing rearmament of Germany.

They had a similar opinion as the FDP on video games up until the killing spree of Winnenden. Since then they have hopped on the same bullshit train as the SPD, saying violent video games are emotionally blunting etc.

Die Linke – The Left

The Left got 11.9% of the votes, keeping them in the opposition.

As the name suggest, they are a left wing party. And a very extreme at that. They are even considered to extreme by some and were even under the surveillance of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Their programme focuses on social equality in all parts of the society.

This is also reflected in their stance on video games. They propagate that not games are solely to blame for the violent youth, but that it’s more the broken family and education politics of the last years.

Piratenpartei – Pirate Party

The Pirate Party only received 1,95% of the votes, keeping them from taking part in the parliament, since you need at least 5% to do that. But this is the first year they take part in the parliamentary elections, so this isn’t half bad. (The Green Party got 1.5% the first time around.)

Established in 2006, the Pirate Party can be seen as the voice of the young people who know what the internet is. They want to strengthen civil rights, stop surveillance measures, protect the net neutrality and raise the acceptance of the internet in the society in general.

And of course they want to stop the constant onslaught of politicians who blame video games for violent acts.

The rest of the votes (∼5%) are split up between a number of smaller parties, like the extreme right NPD. But those don’t really matter for this analysis.

What to make of all this? We now have a ruling coalition with the CDU and the FDP. The CDU might try to make some advances in the banning of all violent videogames, if only so they can say that they did something in the matter. If they succeed or not, depends on the FDP in my book. If they have some balls they might oppose the CDU. But they could consider it a to small of an issue to go against the coalition partner. I will hope for the best.

Apart from that, there is still a general consensus in German politics that there needs to be something done about “those Killergames”. So regardless of who is ruling and who is in the opposition, a lot of politicians will try to use the subject to promote themselves. Then there are the “experts” who blame videogames for everything.

The reason why I included the Pirate Party is that they might be the thing that will move the other parties in a more game friendly direction. If they keep gaining votes over the next years, the established parties will start to adopt parts of the programme of the Pirate Party to lure voters away from them.

All in all I would say that it’s still the same old game. There may be a change for the better in a couple of years, but for now it’s still not looking very good.