So similar, yet so different: Alternative fuer Deutschland and the Pirate Party

Political parties are facing serious challenges in Europe, as more generally in advanced democracies. New parties have only recently started to attract a great deal of scholarly attention. Many new parties tend to share a sentiment of hostility towards the political establishment. However, some of them are difficult to locate along the left-right spectrum. In Spring 2013, most opinion polls put the German Pirate Party (Piraten) and the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) on a 3–5 per cent level, forecasting their possible entry into the German Bundestag. The chapter compares the two parties’ electoral constituencies (in terms of voters’ profile and electoral geography), and looks at some organizational aspects of their founding phase. It argues that the two parties display a very different profile. Yet, they have both attracted voters usually weary of traditional political parties, also attracting a cross-party consensus.