On the historic date of 5 November 2012, the Interior Ministry of the Republic of Slovenia officially confirmed that the Pirate Party of Slovenia is listed in the registry of Slovenian political parties. This was a last step in a long process of establishing a Pirate Party in Slovenia.

The story began on 10 June 2009, when Pirates met for the first time. After exchanging their views about copyright monopoly, freedom of information and transparency of public services, they expressed their intention to found and establish a Pirate Party in Slovenia. Unfortunately, after a few meetings, the initiative slowly died out.

Things started to evolve again in summer 2010, when a group of active Pirates started to revive the initiative. The head of this initiative was Rok Andrée who handled all the organizational and operative matters. Slowly, one after another, new people started to visit weekly meetings and some of them stayed for longer periods and have remained active to this day. Members immediately began to participate in public debates related to core pirate values and principles. The greatest success for a renewed (but not yet registered) Pirate Party of Slovenia followed on 12 March 2011, in Friedrickshafen, when it became a full member of Pirate Parties International (PP-SI page on PPI website).

The crucial year for the party was 2012. It had already started in January when there were discussions and meetings concerning ACTA (The official release about ACTA) taking place, which culminated in protests against ACTA on 4 and 12 February. After those protests, Slovenian Pirates continued with the writing of their party manifesto. Members had long and sometimes heated debates regarding this issue and finally they decided to put in program just the basic, core Pirate topics in seven principles:

• respecting human rights

• privacy and data protection

• free and neutral Internet

• transparency of government and politics

• copyright monopoly reform

• open standards and formats

• free software

(English translation of program).

After finishing statutes in the summer of 2012, PP-SI started preparations for the constitutional convention which took place on 17 October at a well-known venue in Ljubljana, Kino Šiška. Participation by the supporters, who came to visit and vote in this convention, was beyond every expectation: 160 people took part (acknowledgements to all participants). The elections for key party positions went smoothly: Rok Deželak was elected President and Rok Andrée Secretary of the Party.

A few days after the convention, all the collected constitutional signatures (over 216) were brought to Interior Ministry, which issued its confirmation on 5 November 2012 and put the Pirate Party of Slovenia on the official list of registered parties in Slovenia.

After that big step, the Pirate Party of Slovenia is ready for new challenges. There are already three issues that will occupy members in the near future: the new proposal of an Electronic Communications law, a new proposal of Copyright law and CETA.

There is a storm gathering around our ship, but we are prepared to take on this challenge!

Featured Image: CC BY SA by Matej Pušnik

About Matic Urbanija

International Coordinator, Pirate Party of Slovenia/Contributor, Pirate Times/blog: maticurbanija.wordpress.com

 

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On the historic date of 5 November 2012, the Interior Ministry of the Republic of Slovenia officially confirmed that the Pirate Party of Slovenia is listed in the registry of…