Česká pirátská strana

Česká pirátská strana
Party leader	Ivan Bartoš
founding	June 17, 2009
Place of foundation	Prague
Headquarters	Na Moráni 360/3, Prague
Youth organization	Mladí Piráti ( Young Pirates )
Alignment	Liberalism Pro-Europeanism Participatory Democracy
Colours)	black
Seats in the House of Representatives	22/200
Senate mandates	3/81
Mandates in the Prague City Council	13/65
Mandates in the European Parliament	3/21
International connections	Pirate Parties International
European party	European pirate party
EP Group	G / EFA
Website	pirati.cz

The Česká pirátská strana (short name Piráti , formerly ČPS ), German  Czech Pirate Party , is a liberal political party in the Czech Republic .

In the 2017 House of Representatives election , the party received over 10 percent of the votes and moved into the House of Representatives with 22 seats. With Zdeněk Hřib , the party is currently the Lord Mayor of Prague  - the first European capital with a pirate in this office. The party has been represented by three MEPs in the European Parliament since 2019 , where it belongs to the Greens / EFA group and where Marcel Kolaja is one of the 14 Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament.

Content profile

In a 2016 analysis of the political parties in the Czech Republic, the Czech Pirate Party was located in the political center and as liberal . The party's leadership considers the left-right spectrum to be out of date.

Domestic politics

The party's election platform for the 2017 House of Representatives election had four main focuses:

• Control of power and government spending through government transparency and accountability of politicians
• Simplification of the state bureaucracy through the introduction of e-government
• Assistance to small and medium-sized businesses and e-commerce , managing capital outflows from foreign-owned companies and tax avoidance through offshore financial centers
• Respect for civil liberties, freedom of information, freedom of expression, democracy and increased public participation in decision-making ( participatory democracy )

In addition, the pirates represented political opinions in the areas of transport and logistics, finance, IT, culture, international relations, local development, defense, labor and social affairs, industry and trade, justice, domestic politics and transparent governance, education and science, health care, agriculture and environmental protection.

The party supports homosexual rights in the Czech Republic and has spoken out against the Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement (TTIP).

European politics

The party's European priorities in five points:

• Protecting European freedom from external threats by strengthening the defense capabilities, independence and external borders of the EU, as well as against internal threats such as authoritarianism, extremism and censorship
• Transparency of European decision-making, decentralization, citizen participation, subsidiarity and the reduction of bureaucracy in the EU
• Reform of the taxation of large companies, transparent management of the European budget, support for small and medium-sized enterprises
• Tackling the causes of climate change and its effects on the environment; Waste management and energy transition, sustainable development and support for rural areas and smallholders
• Consumer protection, support for social equality and protection of workers' rights

history

The Czech Pirate Party was founded as a student-initiated grassroots movement that advocates political transparency , civil rights and participatory democracy . Based on the Swedish Pirate Party, the founding of the party was prepared in early 2009. After reaching the required number of signatures, Česká pirátská strana has been officially registered as a party since June 17, 2009.

elections

MPs after the 2017 election : from left Tomáš Vymazal, Lukáš Kolářík, Ivan Bartoš , Dana Balcarová (2019)

In May 2010, Česká pirátská strana took part in the elections for the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament for the first time. The elections were originally scheduled for October 2009. The party received a total of 42,323 votes, which corresponds to a share of 0.8%. On October 17, 2010, the party successfully participated in local elections. In Štěpánkovice it achieved 13.1% and won two seats on the city council; in Hostouň she got 9.3% of the vote and won a seat.

In the elections to the regional councils on 12./13. October 2012 the party received between 1.41 and 3.03%, the national average 2.19%. In the partial senate election that took place at the same time , candidate Libor Michálek , who was nominated by the pirates and supported by ČPS, KDU-ČSL and Strana zelených , received the most votes with 24.3% and moved into the runoff on 19/20. October 2012 a. In the runoff election, Michalek was elected senator with 74.4% of the vote.

The Lord Mayor of Prague Zdeněk Hřib (center) and other party members

In the 2013 parliamentary election , the pirates were able to improve their result to 2.6% (132,417 votes). In the European elections in the Czech Republic in 2014 , the Pirate Party received 72,514 votes; With a share of the vote of 4.78%, the party only just missed the 5 percent threshold that applies in the Czech Republic. As a result, Ivan Bartoš resigned as party leader. In the 2014 local elections, the party won seats in several local parliaments, notably a majority in Marienbad , which led to Vojtĕch Franta being elected as the party's first mayor in that city.

In the 2017 House of Representatives election , the party won 10.79% of the vote and entered the Chamber of Representatives for the first time with 22 MPs . In the 2018 Senate election , the economist Lukáš Wagenknecht won a seat in the Senate. The party is currently represented by three members in the Senate. In the Prague local elections in October 2018, the pirates became the second strongest force with 17% of the vote and then formed the ruling coalition. The city council elected Zdeněk Hřib Mayor on November 15th.

2019 European election candidates Marcel Kolaja (right) and Markéta Gregorová (left)

In the 2019 European elections in the Czech Republic , Marcel Kolaja , Markéta Gregorová and Mikuláš Peksa were elected as members of the European Parliament . They joined the Greens / EFA group and Kolaja was elected one of the 14 Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament on July 3rd .

International connections

The ČPS is a voting member of Pirate Parties International (PPI), the world association of pirate parties. In March 2011 Marcel Kolaja , member of the ČPS, was elected as one of the two co-presidents of the PPI. She is also a member of the European Pirate Party and has had two members on its board since 2017.

Chairperson

Bartoš and his deputies in February 2020

• 2009: Kamil Horký
• 2009–2014: Ivan Bartoš
• 2014–2016: Lukáš Černohorský
• since 2016 Ivan Bartoš

literature

•   Maškarinec, P. (2020). Crossing the left-right party divide? Understanding the electoral success of the Czech Pirate Party in the 2017 parliamentary elections. Politics. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263395720920768
• Šárovec, Daniel (2019) "Assured Newcomers on a Squally Sea? The Czech Pirate Party before and after the 2017 Elections" https://otik.uk.zcu.cz/handle/11025/36375?locale=en

Web links

Commons : Česká pirátská strana  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website of the Česká pirátská strana

Individual evidence

1. ^ Pirates Seek to Plant a Flag in Prague . US News & World Report . Philip Heijmans. September 24, 2018.
2. ↑ Zdeněk Hřib: the Czech mayor who defied China . Robert Tait. TheGuardian.com . 3 July 2019.
3. ↑ Česká pirátská strana: Mezinárodní vztahy .
4. ↑ Stanový České pirátské strany ( Czech ) Česká strana pirátská. September 7, 2013. Retrieved September 17, 2013.
5. ↑ Prague is the first European capital to have a pirate as mayor
6. ↑ Politická mapa podle čtenářů: Úsvit a ANO neuchopitelní, o KSČM máte jasno (Czech). Mladá fronta Dnes . 13 September, 2016.
7. ↑ Koncept Levice a Pravice depending podle mě už přežitý, Rika předseda Pirátů (Czech). Mladá fronta Dnes 30 November 2018.
8. ↑ ^{a b} Pirate Party official program (Czech).
9. ↑ Petra Dvořáková: Piráti miluji. Pirátské vlajky tradičně na Prague Pride (Czech). piratskelisty.cz. Published on August 17, 2016.
10. ↑ ČTK, iDNES.cz. Desítky tisíc Němců vyšly do ulic. Odmítají smlouvy EU s Kanadou a USA (Czech). Mladá fronta Dnes . Published on September 17, 2017.
11. ↑ Volební program pro volby do Evropského parlamentu 2019 (Czech) pirati.cz.
12. ↑ Philip Heijmans: Pirates Seek to Plant a Flag in Prague. US News & World Report . September 24, 2018.
13. ↑ [1]
14. ↑ Results of the Czech parliamentary elections in 2010 ( memento of the original from December 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
15. ↑ Pirates board Czech local elections
16. ↑ [2]
17. ↑ [3]
18. ↑ [4]
19. ↑ result (Czech)
20. ^ Pirates to Enter Several Local Czech Parliaments . PirateTimes. October 11, 2014.
21. ↑ První starosta z Pirátů: Chceme Mariánské Lázně omladit . Ceskatelevize. November 12, 2014.
22. ↑ Mayor of Marienbad . City of Marienbad. November 13, 2014.
23. ↑ [5]
24. ↑ Official results (Czech)
25. ↑ Ivan Štern: Wagenknecht vyhrál senátní volby . 2018-10-13. Český rozhlas .
26. ↑ Primátorem Prahy bude pirate Hřib. Další koaliční lídři jsou mimo radu . Mladá fronta Dnes . October 25, 2018
27. ↑ pirate, který v Česku žádné spojence nevidí. Kolaja je lídrem do voleb (Czech). deník.cz. 11th February 2019.
28. ↑ Fourteen Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament elected . Press release PLENARY SESSION 04-07-2019. europarl.europa.eu.
29. ↑ Curriculum Vitae ( Memento of October 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), volipiraty.cz.