Czech Pirate Party

Czech Pirate Party
Leader Ivan Bartoš
Founded 17 June 2009 (2009-06-17)
Headquarters Řehořova 943/19
130 00, Praha 3[1]
Membership  (2016) 436[2]
Ideology Pirate politics,
Direct democracy[3]
Political position Centre[4]
International affiliation Pirate Parties International
Chamber of Deputies
0 / 200
Senate
1 / 81
European Parliament
0 / 21
Regional councils
0 / 675
Local councils
21 / 62,300
Website
www.pirati.cz

The Czech Pirate Party (Czech: Česká pirátská strana), short - Pirates (Czech: Piráti)[1] is a political party in the Czech Republic, founded in 2009.

Pirate Parties were established in many European countries as a protest against the restriction of the civil rights by lobby groups. The main topic of the Pirate Party is information and its fundamental meaning in modern society. The Pirates are focused mainly on civil liberties, sharing of information, effective use of technologies and privacy protection. An integral part of their program is also transparency, e-government, direct democracy, the question of drugs (decriminalization and legalization - rational approach), education (effectivity) and health-care, where the Party opposes conservative points of view.

The party is a member of the Pirate Parties International and European Pirates. One of the Czech Pirates, Mikuláš Peksa, is nowadays a board member of PP-EU,[5] another one, Vojtěch Pikal used to be a Co-chairman of PPI in 2013-2014.

Characteristics and objectives

The declared political objective of the party is the assertion of respect to the elementary human right to spread freely all accepted information and a strict protection of citizens' privacy due to the changed reality of the information society.

Based on this main thesis was formulated a program with which the party run for the elections to the Chamber of Deputies in 2010. Main points of this program were:

  1. to provide basic civil rights and freedom in the Internet age;
  2. maximal transparency of the state;
  3. separation of powers, direct vote, recall of the elected representatives, direct democracy based on the Swiss model;
  4. and a revision of laws which suppress the creativity through monopolies.

In 2011 Pirates begun to create the Pirate Program – the main program document of the party. It includes etc. chapters direct democracy, separation of powers, transparent state, political parties, e-government, removal of information monopolies, an emphasis on the rule of law, legalization of drugs, protection of privacy or support of artistic freedom.

The party declares a will to follow the program objectives in its own activity, so it has a transparent account and accountancy, uses free licenses and works with direct election, recall and referendum.

History

On 27 May 2009 has been submitted an application to the Interior ministry for the party registration; a month later, on 17 June, was the party registered under a code MV-39553-7/VS-2009.

It registered at Czech Interior Ministry on June 17, 2009.[6] During the first two days after launching their website in April, 1,800 people signed online petition for party registration.[7] Czech law requires 1,000 signatures on paper petition for party registration. In the student elections, the Pirate Party received 7.7% of the vote.[8]

On 28 June 2009 was held in Průhonice near Prague the constitutive forum of the party, where the board was elected and main topics of the program were declared. As the chairman was elected Kamil Horký.

At the end of October 2009 in Albrechtice nad Orlicí was organized 1st meeting of the General Assembly (GA), where were completed Statutes and a new board, commission and committee were elected. The position of a chairman gained Ivan Bartoš.

The PPI Conference

In April 2012 organized the Czech Pirate party in Prague a conference of the Pirate Parties International (PPI). More than 200 representatives of Pirate parties from 27 countries attended, etc. the founder of the Pirate movement, Rick Falkvinge; a writer Cory Doctorow; or a Swedish MEP Amelia Andersdotter. The Pirate parties of Europe made an agreement to proceed together in the 2014 elections to the Europe Parliament.

Election results

The party participated in the general elections in May 2010,[9] and received 0.8% of the vote.[10]

In December 2010, the party has launched its own national whistleblowing site similar to WikiLeaks called PirateLeaks.[11] The site is intended as primary source for journalists. It is dedicated to both evidence of corruption in Czech government and public administration documents which should be publicly available according to law 106/1999 Sb. (Free Access to Information Act) but which the authorities refuse to disclose without formal request defined by the law.

Standing in a local senate election on 18–19 March 2011 in Kladno, they obtained 0.75% of the vote.[12]

In the Senate elections 2012 the Czech Pirate Party introduced three candidates; one of them was in common with two other parties. This candidate, already a well-known whistleblower Libor Michálek, was in the 2nd round elected as a Senator, therefore the Czech Pirate Party became a parliamentary party. It thus won an unofficial competition for „the first Pirate in parliament“.

In the local elections 2014 the party entered many local parliaments with large numbers, including a clear majority in Mariánské Lázně,[13] which subsequently resulted in Vojtech Franta being elected as the first mayor of the party in this city.[14][15]

In numbers:

European Parliament elections

Year Number Candidates Votes Seats State contribution
in sum in % gained change
2014[16] 32 27 72 514 4,78 0 - 2 175 420,- CZK

Czech Chamber of Deputies elections

The party participated in the elections to the Chamber of Deputies 2010, gaining 42.323 votes (0,80%) and therefore ended up on 11th place.

Year Number Candidates Votes Seats State contribution
in sum in % in sum change reimbursement for the votes permanent for the activity
2010 23 140 42,323 0.80% 0 - 0,- 0,-
2013 3 192 132,417 2.66% 0 - 13,241,700,- 0,-

Czech Senate elections

Year Candidates Votes Best result Returned Deposit Seats State contribution
Candidate district votes % gained change
2010 1 1.131 Pavel Přeučil (no party) no. 19 1.131 2,77% 0 0 - 0,-
2011 1 205 PaedDr. Ivo Vašíček no. 30 205 0,75% 0 0 - 0,-
2012 3 7.947 Mgr. MPA Libor Michálek (no party) no. 26 5.520 24,31% 1 1 +1 CZK 285 000,-.

Regional elections in the Czech Republic

Year Number Candidates Votes Best result Seats State contribution
in sum in % region votes % gained change
2012 93 172 57.805 2,19 Středočeský region 10.617 3,03 0 - 0,- Kč
2016 82 (6, 21, 22, 56, 76, 77) 371 44.070[p 1] 1,74[p 1] Karlovarský region 3.835 5,46 5 +5 1 187 500,- Kč

The Board

Chairman

Order Name Period
1. Kamil Horký 2009
2. Ivan Bartoš 2009 - 2013
3. Jakub Michálek 2013
4. Ivan Bartoš 2013 - 2014
5. Jana Michailidu 2014
6. Lukáš Černohorský 2014 - 2016
5. Ivan Bartoš 2016–present

Vice chairmen

Position Name
1st Vice chairman Vojtěch Pikal
2nd Vice chairman Martin Šmída
3rd Vice chairman Jakub Michálek
4th Vice chairman Ivo Vašíček

Former vice chairpersons: Jakub Michálek, Lenka Wagnerová, Mikuláš Ferjenčík, Marcel Kolaja, Michal Havránek, Jana Michailidu, Tomáš Vymazal, Dominika Michailidu, Václav Fořtík

Notes

  1. 1 2 Does not include votes from coalitions.

References

  1. 1 2 "Kontakt" (in Czech). Česká pirátská strana.
  2. ↑ "Bartoš se po dvou letech vrací do vedení Pirátů, volbu vyhrál už v prvním kole". Aktuálně.cz - Víte co se právě děje. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  3. ↑ "Stanovy České pirátské strany" (in Czech). Česká pirátská strana. 7 September 2013. Retrieved 2013-09-17.
  4. ↑ "Předsedou Pirátské strany byl zvolen Ivan Bartoš". Lidové Noviny. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  5. ↑ "European Pirate Party - Board". Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  6. ↑ Fišer, Miloslav (22 June 2009). "Česká pirátská strana má povolení ministerstva a chce do parlamentu". Novinky.cz (in Czech).
  7. ↑ Votrubová, Andrea (21 April 2009). "Čeští internetoví piráti zakládají politickou stranu". iDnes.cz (in Czech).
  8. ↑ "Tschechien: Jugend vereint gegen Linksparteien". Wiener Zeitung. 21 May 2010.
  9. ↑ "Czech Interior Ministry registers Czech Pirate Party". ČeskéNoviny.cz. Czech News Agency. 22 June 2009.
  10. ↑ "Election to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic held on 28 – 29 May 2010". Czech Statistical Office. 2010-05-30. Retrieved 2010-05-30.
  11. ↑ "Czech Pirate Party launches new whistleblowing site". Deutsche Welle. 2010-12-29. Retrieved 2011-03-14.
  12. ↑ http://wiki.pp-international.net/Main_Page PPI wiki
  13. ↑ Pirates to Enter Several Local Czech Parliaments, PirateTimes, 2014-10-11
  14. ↑ První starosta z Pirátů: Chceme Mariánské Lázně omladit (The first mayor of Pirates: We want to rejuvenate Marianske Lazne), Ceskatelevize, 2014-11-12
  15. ↑ Mayor of Mariánské Lázně, City of Mariánské Lázně, 2014-11-13
  16. ↑ Volby do Evropského parlamentu konané na území České republiky ve dnech 23.05. – 24.05.2014 volby.cz

External links

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