Czech Pirate Party

Czech Pirate Party
Česká pirátská strana
AbbreviationPiráti[1]
LeaderZdeněk Hřib
Deputy LeadersMartin Šmída
Michal Bláha
Hana Hajnová
Chamber of Deputies LeaderJakub Michálek
MEP LeaderMarkéta Gregorová
Founded17 June 2009; 15 years ago (2009-06-17)
HeadquartersNa Moráni 360/3, Prague[2]
NewspaperPirátské listy
Think tankπ Institute[3]
Youth wingYoung Pirates
Membership (2022)1,204[4]
Ideology
Political positionCentre[19] to centre-left[12]
National affiliationPirates and Mayors
(2020–2021)
European affiliationEuropean Pirate Party
European Parliament groupGreens–European Free Alliance[20]
International affiliationPirate Parties International
Colours  Black
Slogan"The internet is our sea."[21]
Chamber of Deputies
4 / 200
Senate
1 / 81
European Parliament
1 / 21
Regional councils
3 / 675
Local councils
279 / 61,780
Prague City Assembly
13 / 65
Party flag
Flag of the Czech Pirate Party
Website
www.pirati.cz

The Czech Pirate Party (Czech: Česká pirátská strana [ˈtʃɛskaː ˈpɪraːtskaː ˈstrana]) often known simply as the Pirates (Piráti [ˈpɪraːcɪ])[2] is a liberal progressive political party in the Czech Republic, founded in 2009. The party was founded as a student-driven grassroots movement campaigning for political transparency, civil rights and direct democracy.

The party's program focuses on safeguarding of civil liberties from state or corporate power via government transparency[22] and public participation in democratic decision making. It aims to achieve its agenda by enacting laws for political accountability, anti-corruption, lobbying transparency, tax avoidance prevention, simplifying of state bureaucracy through e-government, supporting small and medium-sized business, funding of local development, promotion of environmental protection, consumer protection and sustainability. The party also aims to reform laws on copyright, financial markets and banking, taxation of multinational corporations, and while it is a pro-European party, it aims to address the perceived democratic deficit in the European Union by decentralization and subsidiarity.[23]

The party contested the 2021 Czech parliamentary election as part of the alliance Pirates and Mayors with the Mayors and Independents party. The alliance gained 37 seats, out of which four are Pirate MPs, and joined the governing Cabinet of Petr Fiala with Spolu. The Pirate party is represented by five Members of the Senate of the Czech Republic, the most recently elected being Adéla Šípová and David Smoljak in 2020 and Lukáš Wagenknecht in 2018. That same year, the party entered a number of municipal assemblies and formed a governing coalition in the Prague City Assembly, with Zdeněk Hřib becoming the Mayor of Prague. In the 2019 European election, the party gained three MEPs, joined the Greens–European Free Alliance parliamentary group and campaign leader Marcel Kolaja was elected one of fourteen Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament. The party holds 3 out of 675 seats in regional councils since the September 2024 elections.

  1. ^ "Stanovy České pirátské strany". Czech Pirate Party (in Czech).
  2. ^ a b "Kontakt". Czech Pirate Party (in Czech).
  3. ^ "Piráti hledají ředitele či ředitelku svého institutu π". Czech Pirate Party (in Czech). Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  4. ^ "Statistiky". lide.pirati.cz. 12 July 2022. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  5. ^ Assured Newcomers on a Squally Sea? Czech Pirate Party Before and After Elections 2017 Archived 2018-10-29 at the Wayback Machine. The European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR). Author - Daniel Šárovec. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
  6. ^ Pirates Seek to Plant a Flag in Prague. U.S. News & World Report. Philip Heijmans. 24. September 2018.
  7. ^ Zdeněk Hřib: the Czech mayor who defied China. Robert Tait. TheGuardian.com. 3 February 2020.
  8. ^ Pokud se výrazně nezmění, narazili Piráti na svůj strop. V krajských volbách mají hendikep, říká politolog (in Czech). Deník N. Jan Tvdoň. 11 January 2020.
  9. ^ a b Katerina Safarikova. CZECHS EYE ‘SYMBOLIC’ PIRATE BREAKTHROUGH IN EUROPE. /balkaninsight.com. May 21, 2019.
  10. ^ [6][7][8][9]
  11. ^ Charvát, Jan (2015). "Pravice nebo levice? Analýza ideologie pirátských stran" (PDF). Central European Journal of Politics (in Czech). 1 (1). Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem: 33. ISSN 2464-479X. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  12. ^ a b Hinshaw, Drew; Heijmans, Philip (2017-10-11). "Upstart Pirate Party Remixes Czech Politics". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
  13. ^ Pavel Maškarinec. The Czech Pirate Party in the 2010 and 2013 Parliamentary Elections and the 2014 European Parliament Elections: Spatial Analysis of Voter Support. Slovak Journal of Political Sciences, Volume 17, 2017, No. 1. Walter de Gruyter.
  14. ^ "Bartoš obhájil post předsedy Pirátů, prvním místopředsedou se stal europoslanec Kolaja". iROZHLAS.cz (in Czech). Czech Radio. 8 January 2022. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  15. ^ [11][12][13][14]
  16. ^ Slawek Blich. Finally a healthy dose of anti-establishment. politicalcritique.org. January 8, 2018.
  17. ^ [16][9]
  18. ^ "In the Czech Republic, almost everyone ran against the system". The Economist.
  19. ^ "Předsedou Pirátské strany byl zvolen Ivan Bartoš". Lidové Noviny. Archived from the original on 4 July 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  20. ^ "Greens/EFA in the European Parliament". Facebook.
  21. ^ "Česká pirátská strana". Bez faulu (in Czech). Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nordsieck was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference Pirates official program was invoked but never defined (see the help page).