Czech PP Celebrates First Pirate Senator | PirateTimes

Posted: October 12, 2012/Under: Andrew Reitemeyer, Creator, Czech, Election, News/By: Andrew Reitemeyer

Czech PP Celebrates First Pirate Senator

October 20, 2012 · by Andrew Reitemeyer · in Election

The Czechs have their first elected Pirate Senator. Pirates worldwide will be rejoicing with PPCZ as they celebrate Libor Michálek’s success in the senatorial elections.

Famous, in his own country, as a whistle blower for exposing corruption in 1996 when he worked for the National Property Fund. In 2010 his complaints about fraudulent manipulation of procurement and tendering led to the dismissal of ministers and top officials. In March 2011, he was awarded the Endowment Fund Against Corruption Prize. In May 2011 he was awarded the František Kriegel Award from Charter 77 for the outstanding achievements in the struggle for human rights and civil liberties.

In July 2012, he announced that he would stand for the Senate in District 26 as a Pirate . He went on to win the first round with 24.3% of the votes. In the second round he was elected senator with 74.4% of the votes.

Edit: It has come to our attention that Libor Michálek was elected representing not just Pirates but a coalition of Pirates, Greens and Social Democrats.

http://www.libormichalek.cz/ (Czech)
http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libor_Mich%C3%A1lek (Czech)

Featured image CC-BY-SA Libor Michálek

About Andrew Reitemeyer

I joined the Pirate Party of Lower Saxony in Germany in April 2012, once I found out that non citizens were welcome to join and become active members of the Party.
I joined the Pirate Times soon after it was started as a proof reader and am now an editor and author. Since then I have returned to my native New Zealand and joined the Pirate Party of New Zealand.
Politically I come from the libertarian left and have, up to now, not regarded any political party as having a solution for the democratic deficit that envelops the world. With the advent of the Pirate Party, which truly embraces grass roots democracy, I have found a political home. The Pirate Times is a way I can contribute to furthering the Pirate Movement around the world.
Skype: frithogar

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Tags: Czech Republic, Election Result, Libor Michálek, PPCZ

- swosh
  
  But he was united candidate for Green Party, Christian Democratic Union and Pirates. And of course i m glad he won.

- NingúnOtro
  
  First elected member of the European Pirate Party ? .
  
  Congratulations.

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- suchenwi
  
  After reading Czech news (via Google Translate ;-), it appears to me as follows:
  Libor Michálek is an independent, not a member of any of the three parties. He accepted the invitation by the Czech Pirates to propose him as candidate, then also got support from Greens and Christian Democrats (which is a rather small party in CR), and had best results in the two passes of the elections (first about 25%, second over 74%).
  When he was asked which faction in Senate he would join, he said he considered the Christian Democratic faction, if they modified their name to “Christian Democrats and Independents”.
  Makes sense, since neither Greens nor Pirates have any other seats in the Senate.