On 7-8th October there were regional elections in the Czech Republic. The Pirate Party Czech Republic (PPCZ) achieved a successful election in several regions and added five pirate representatives to regional governments. Despite the success PPCZ expressed a concern for a decreasing election participation.

“Even though we were expecting slightly better results in the regional elections, it could have been way worse […] We thank all our voters once again for their support and votes. This election also confirmed the growing trend of the Pirates’ impact, leading to better results in each following election. Mariánské Lázně made us the most happy. In this town, where a Pirate is its mayor, we got unbelievable 30% of the vote. In the second round of the senatorial elections we have our fingers crossed for the two representatives fighting an election with our support.” – Mikuláš Ferjenčík, head of PPCZ Media Department

Compared to the last regional election the Pirate Party has achieved an improvement in every single region of the Czech Republic.  In 2014 PPCZ entered into several local elections. They are now joined by five newly elected pirate representatives from three other regions in the Czech Republic. The greatest success was achieved by the Pirates in the Karlovy Vary region, where three Pirates (Josef Janů, Petr Třešňák and Vojtěch Franta) received a councilor’s seat. PPCZ (in coalition with the Green Party) also received over 5% of the vote in two more regions. In Hradec Králové the pirates received one representative (Martin Jiránek) and in South Moravia region they got another representative (PPCZ deputy chairman, Ivo Vašíček).

During the election the first round of the senate election also took place.  Two Senatorial candidates, supported by the Pirates, advanced to the second round of the elections. Ladislav Kos who runs in the region of ‘Prague 11’ abd Renáta Chmelová who runs in ‘Prague 10, Dubeč and Štěrboholy’. The second (and final) round for the senate election will take place on October 14-15th.

Despite a successful election the President of the Czech Pirate Party (Ivan Bartoš) expressed a concern of decreasing voter participation in elections:

“During every election we can watch a decreasing number of people turning up at the polling stations. It’s a goal for all politicians, not just the Pirates, to reverse this trend. It’s not helpful for the bigger parties to just fight over the rest of voters that actually turn up. All the parties tend to talk about the people’s distrust of politics. Sadly, they don’t do anything to change that, they do not even try. This situation, paradoxically, helps the parties that are actually quite detached from the real function of political parties, which is to represent the real interest of their electorate and transform it into an action while leading the country. If the current development is any sign of what’s to come, any real change for the Czech Republic is impossible.”

You can read more about PPCZ in our earlier articles.

Featured image: No copyright, PPCZ website.

About Josef Ohlsson Collentine

I’m a dual citizen (American/Swede) and try to integrate my reflections from a more global perspective if possible. I’m the organizational leader for Pirate Times and work actively to strengthen the pirate movement through this work as well as being the international contact for Piratpartiet (PPSE). Elected board member of PPSE for 2015-2018.
If you would like to ask me something I speak English, Swedish and Spanish. Find me on the links below

 

• 
• 
• 
• 

 

On 7-8th October there were regional elections in the Czech Republic. The Pirate Party Czech Republic (PPCZ) achieved a successful election in several regions and added five pirate representatives to…