Satire as an expression of political will?: A survey voters for the PARTEI

In May 2014, the party "Die PARTEI" caused a sensation: thanks to an election result of 0.6 per cent, it was able to send Martin Sonneborn to the European Parliament. Ten years earlier, Die PARTEI had been founded by the editorial team of *Titanic* magazine and has since attracted attention primarily through its satirical policies, such as the call for the Berlin Wall to be rebuilt. The existence of satirical parties is nothing new. As early as 1911, the writer Jaroslav Ha¿ek had founded the "Party of Moderate Progress Within the Bounds of the Law" in Prague. Whilst electoral success largely eluded earlier satirical parties, however, the "Polish Party of Beer Lovers" managed to enter parliament in Poland in the 1990s. And in 2010, the comedian Jón Gnarr became mayor of Reykjavik with his "Best Party". But how is it possible that voters cast their ballots for a party that stands for manifestly grotesque demands and attracts attention through bizarre actions? In his bachelor's thesis, written in the run-up to the 2014 European elections, the author interviewed ten voters from *Die PARTEI* about their reasons for casting their vote.