I'm from germany, and have voted for the pirate party in recent local elections.<p>I'd like to add a few things:
1. The german system of government is very much different from the US. In the US you have by-and-large a "winner takes it all" voting system.
In germany, by contrast, we have a system of proportional representation. That means, winning 10% of the popular vote nets you 10% of the seats that are on the line in your voting district.
That's why we currently have 6 parties in our federal parliament ("Bundestag") - where you have only 2 parties in congress.<p>2. Although this is "just" a poll it isn't meaningless. The pirate party has been steadily building up momentum in the last 2 years. They now are the 5th largest party by member count in germany.
They have also scored surprisingly high wins in two recent regional elections, and are set to repeat those gains in the two upcoming elections.<p>3. The pirate party runs on a platform of systemic reform. They want copyright reformed to be more compatible with the 21st century. They want a reformed educational sector with more use of modern technology in the classroom, as well as improved structures (i.e. more freedom to pursue different educational models).
They also want to reform the political system at large, by having more citizen participation in political decisions. They want more public votes on specific issues, as well as more transparency (For example: ACTA was negotiated in secret and only announced to the german public once the details were finished. They pirates strongly oppose such intransparency.)<p>This helped them to capture the votes of young, highly educated people.
Many, but by no means all, from the "informatics" sector.
They have also mobilized many first time voters, and re-energized many people who had formerly abandoned voting.<p>4. What's currently also helping them is the bad state of our government (the governing coalition is in disarray), their inability to answer to the challenges shaping our future, their corruption (our head of state recently had to resign in shame), their detachedness from concerns of everyday people. This greatly helps them to get the vote of people who are disaffected with the "established" parties and who are ready to give those "political youngsters" a chance.<p>It's by no means guaranteed, but they seem to be on the way of becoming a serious political force in germany.