Pirate with certain benefits

Although Christian Welter is only 23 years old, he has already run as a candidate for the Piratepartei in three different elections. The votes he received were not enough for the Chamber of Deputies and the European Parliament, but together with Pirate MEP Marc Goergen, Welter represents his party in the municipal council of Pétange.

The president of the Jonk Piraten is studying communication sciences in Rotterdam, is engaged at the marine protection organisation Sea Shepherd and is a convinced vegan. The interview took place on Tuesday last week.

Lëtzebuerger Journal: The Jonk Piraten do not have their own website. This is actually unthinkable for a party that originally dealt almost exclusively with topics related to the internet.

Christian Welter: That's because we are in the process of working on a new site.

However, a website of the Jonk Piraten has not been found for quite some time …

If I wasn't so busy with my studies at the moment, I would have tackled the matter more intensively. But the website should be available within the next few weeks.

The other youth parties seem to be more hard-working than the Jonk Piraten, as the last post on your Facebook page is from March 8 – a call for participation in a rally for International Women's Day.

We are in the process of reorganising and looking for active members. The members who are active at the moment are all still studying or have just started working. I would even call it a self-discovery phase.

We simply lack the necessary time to get more involved in party work, which is also true for me, as I am also active in the municipal council of Pétange in addition to my studies in Rotterdam.

How many members do the Jonk Piraten actually have?

We have around 20 to 30 members, but not all of them are equally active.