The Czech Pirates and the Czech Green party feel that the election treshold was unjust and are challenging the 5% treshold by filing a complaint to the Supreme Administrative Court (NSS). The two parties argue that there is no justifiable reason for implementing a 5% hurdle for the European Parliament since, the European Parliament does not need to create a majority in the same way a national parliament does. The arguments brought forward in the complaint are mainly based on the recent decisions of the German Federal Constitutional Court that abolished the treshold for European Parliament elections in Germany.

The Czech Republic has 21 Seats in the European Parliament. PPCZ achieved 4.78% and the Green party reached 3.77% which would have entitled both parties to one MEP seat if there was no 5% treshold. In Germany their Federal Constitutional Court clearly stated “that the election threshold is not appropriate even in the most populated MS of the EU (96 MEPs), because it groundlessly violates political rights, which are guaranteed by the Constitution”.

“We would have supported a complaint against the treshold even if we had reached more than 5% in the elections but we would not have been able to file it ourselves since we would not have been “damaged” then” said Ferjencik to Pirate Times.

The two parties originally wanted to place their complaint directly to the Constitutional Court (US) but first the NSS has to make a judgement or pass the case upward. The NSS has 20 days to make a decision in the case, the Constitutional Court will have “unlimited time”. The participation in the EU election in Czech Republic was a record low 18.2% of voters.

Should the Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) decide the treshold should not have been where it is, the Czech Pirate Party (Ivan Bartoš) and the Green Party (Ondřej Liška) would enter the European Parliament. If the NSS rejects the proposal, the Czech Pirates and the green Party will send a Constitutional Complaint to the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic, which might reach the same conclusion as its German counterpart.

Featured image: No copyright. “Share and let others do the same”.

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

 

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The Czech Pirates and the Czech Green party feel that the election treshold was unjust and are challenging the 5% treshold by filing a complaint to the Supreme Administrative Court…