The Czech Pirate Party (), commonly known as the Pirates (Piráti), is a liberal political party in the Czech Republic. Founded in 2009 as part of the international Pirate movement, it initially focused on digital rights, copyright reform, government transparency and civil liberties. Its programme later expanded to include anti-corruption measures, the digitalisation of public administration, environmental protection and a pro-European foreign policy.
The Pirates first entered the Chamber of Deputies in the 2017 parliamentary election, winning 22 seats. In 2021, they contested the parliamentary election together with Mayors and Independents as the Pirates and Mayors alliance and subsequently joined Petr Fiala's Cabinet. The party left the government in 2024 after Prime Minister Petr Fiala dismissed Pirate leader Ivan Bartoš as minister for regional development amid problems with a new digital building-permit system. Zdeněk Hřib was elected party leader later that year.
In the 2025 parliamentary election, the Pirates received 8.97% of the vote and their lists won 18 seats. Two of those seats were won by members of the Green Party standing on Pirate lists. The party is also represented in the European Parliament by Markéta Gregorová, a member of the Greens–European Free Alliance group.
History Formation and early years (2009–2011)
The Czech Pirate Party was founded as a student-driven grassroots movement campaigning for political transparency, civil rights and direct democracy. The party was initially inspired by the Swedish Pirate Party,Poslanecký klub České pirátské strany vznikl v 8. období 22. října 2017. psp.cz. which like most other Pirate Parties was a single-issue party focusing on Internet freedom; however, the Czech Pirate Party has developed a broad political platform.
On 27 May 2009 an application was submitted to the Ministry of the Interior for registration of the party. On 17 June, the party was registered under the code MV-39553-7/VS-2009. Within the first two days of the launch of their website in April, 1,800 people had signed an online petition to register the party. Czech law requires a paper petition with 1,000 signatures for registration. In the student elections, the Pirate Party received 7.7% of the vote.
On 28 June 2009 the party held a constitutive forum in Průhonice, near Prague, where the board was elected and main elements of the program were declared. Kamil Horký was elected as chairman. At the end of October 2009 in Albrechtice nad Orlicí, the General Assembly (GA) met for the first time, to complete statutes and elect a new board, commission and committee. Ivan Bartoš became party chairman.
The party participated in the general election in May 2010, and received 0.8% of the vote.
In December 2010, the party launched its own national whistle-blowing site similar to WikiLeaks, called PirateLeaks. The site was intended as a primary source for journalists, dedicated to evidence of corruption in the 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 refused to disclose without a formal request defined by the law.
Parliamentary party (from 2011)
Standing in a local senate election on 18–19 March 2011 in Kladno, they obtained 0.75% of the vote. In the 2012 Czech Senate election, the Czech Pirate Party nominated three candidates; one of them was a co-nomination with two other parties. This candidate, the whistleblower Libor Michálek, was elected as Senator in the second round of voting, with the Czech Pirate Party becoming a parliamentary party for the first time. The party's youth wing, "Young Pirates" (), was founded in 2013 by Vojtěch Pikal, though it later became mostly inactive.
In local elections in 2014 the party entered many local assemblies, including a clear majority in Mariánské Lázně, which resulted in Vojtěch Franta being elected as the party's first mayor. This city became the party's main stronghold outside Prague and its suburbs.
In the 2016 Senate election, the Pirates won two additional seats in the Senate with Ladislav Kos and Renata Chmelová, who were nominated by multi-party coalitions with the Pirates' support.Výsledky voleb v České republice Senátní volby 2016 (konečné výsledky). Mladá fronta DNES with Bartoš as a leader.
Following the 2017 parliamentary election, the party became the third largest party in the Chamber of Deputies with 22 out of 200 seats and sat in opposition to the ruling cabinet. Economist and auditor Lukáš Wagenknecht was elected Senator in the 2018 election, when Michálek's term ended.
The Pirates ranked second in the 2018 Prague municipal election with 13 out of 65 seats and formed a governing coalition with the third and fourth-ranked parties that holds 39 out of 65 seats in the Prague City Assembly.Nová pražská koalice plánuje personální změny v městských firmách. Skoncujeme se systémem politických trafik, slibují piráti (in Czech). Hospodářské noviny. 26. 10. 2018. The leading Pirate candidate with 75,082 votes, Zdeněk Hřib, was elected as Mayor of Prague.Primátorem Prahy bude Pirát Hřib. Další koaliční lídři jsou mimo radu (in Czech). Mladá fronta DNES. 25 October 2018.
With leading candidate Marcel Kolaja in the 2019 European Parliament election,Zdeňka Trachtová. Volební lídr Pirátů: V europarlamentu chci bojovat proti korporátním tlakům a cenzuře internetu (in Czech). Czech Radio. 19 January 2019. the party ran on a common platform with the European Pirate Party.ČTK, EKB. Evropské pirátské strany spojují síly. V Lucemburku podepsaly program pro eurovolby (in Czech). info.cz. 9 February 2019. Kolaja was elected along with Markéta Gregorová and Mikuláš Peksa as Members of the European Parliament.Volby do Evropského parlamentu konané na území České republiky ve dnech 24.05. – 25.05.2019 (in Czech). volby.cz In May 2019, the party negotiated to join the Greens–European Free Alliance parliamentary group along with German Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer.Kateřina Šafaříková. PIRÁTI MÍŘÍ K EVROPSKÝM ZELENÝM (in Czech). Respekt. 29. 5. 2019 In June, all four members of the European Pirate Party joined the parliamentary grouping. On 3 July, Kolaja was elected one of fourteen Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament.The new European Parliament Vice-Presidents. europarl.europa.eu. Press release.
In January 2020, Bartoš was re-elected as party leader.Předsedou Pirátů opět Bartoš, místopředsedkyní Richterová (in Czech). České Noviny.cz. 11 January 2020. With 14.67% of the vote in the October 2020 regional elections, the party gained 99 out of 675 seats in regional councils. In the 2020 Senate election, the party nominated two successful candidates, David Smoljak and Adéla Šípová, who became the youngest ever member of the Senate at the age of 40, breaking the previous record of Pirate Senator Wagenknecht.Radek Bartoníček. Tvrdě jsem pracovala, říká nejmladší senátorka, která porazila matadora Bendla. (in Czech) Aktuálně.cz. 10.10.2020.
During late 2020 and early 2021, the Pirates formed the Pirates and Mayors electoral alliance for the 2021 parliamentary election with liberal centre-right party Mayors and Independents (STAN).Lídrem koalice Pirátů a STAN má být Ivan Bartoš. ČT24. 14.12.2020. The alliance won 37 seats, of which four are Pirate MPs, and joined the governing coalition with Spolu.Piráti půjdou do vlády. Krok schválilo přes osmdesát procent členů strany. e15.cz. 15.11.2021. The party nominated three ministers for the incoming Cabinet of Petr Fiala: Ivan Bartoš as Minister of Regional Development and Digitalisation, Jan Lipavský as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Michal Šalomoun as Minister of Legislation.
In September 2024, the Pirates left the governing coalition after Fiala dismissed Bartoš as regional development minister due to problems over a new digital system for issuing building permits. However, Lipavský left the party to stay as foreign minister.
In November 2024, Zdeněk Hřib was elected as party leader. In January 2026, Hřib was re-elected as party leader.
Positions and objectives
Political spectrum and ideology The Czech Pirate Party is a centrist to centre-left progressive liberalPirates Seek to Plant a Flag in Prague. U.S. News & World Report. Philip Heijmans. 24. September 2018. party within the context of politics of the Czech Republic. The party's leadership expressed that it considers the left–right political spectrum to be obsolete.Koncept levice a pravice je podle mě už přežitý, říká předseda Pirátů (in Czech). Mladá fronta DNES 30 November 2018. The party itself describes its stance as economically centrist and socially liberal, in the context of Czech politics.Piráti chtějí vést liberální politický střed a v květnu získat 20 procent, zaznělo na fóru v Táboře (in Czech). ČT24. 19 January 2019.
Domestic policy The party's program focuses on safeguarding of civil liberties from state or corporate power through government transparency, accountability and anti-corruption measures, introducing elements of participatory democracy by enabling law proposals by the public through petitions and simplification of state bureaucracy through e-government.Piráti představili program. Do voleb jdou se sloganem ‚Všichni nekradou‘. Lidové noviny. Published on September 7, 2017.
The party proposes a lobby register and a lobbying law reform,Karolína Sadílková. Piráti: Zákon o lobbingu a registr lobbistů zpřehlední legislativní proces a zabrání plýtvání (Czech). 20.02.2018. measures to address tax avoidance of multinational corporations and limit capital outflow, a bank tax, the strengthening of the Czech National Bank's authority, prevention of financial speculation leading to financial crises and financial crime; and it is against any public bank bailouts.Banky, které se postarají samy o sebe . pirati.cz.
The party has an environmental policy platform entitled "Ecology without ideology",Jan Trnka. Ekologie a ideologie Jedno z předvolebních hesel České pirátské strany zní „Ekologie bez ideologie“. Co se tím strana snaží říct? (in Czech). a2larm.cz. 02.10.17. which focuses on the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies, scientific research and development-based support for alternative energy (i.e. renewables and nuclear), sustainable materials management from product design to waste management, sustainable transport with a preference for public transport, and sustainable city planning and urban development.Životní prostředí (in Czech). piráti.cz.
The party's agricultural policy proposes support for small-scale farmers and community farms instead of subsidizing intensive farming and large agribusinesses. The program promotes biodiversity of crops, and forest management and land management that address the environmental impact of agriculture rather than subsidizing monoculture crops that cause land degradation and have a variety of unsustainable environmental impacts. The Pirates also propose to simplify the producer–consumer chain by supporting infrastructure for the sale of local and seasonal produce.Piráti k tématu Zemědělství a životní prostředí (in Czech). Česká televize. 14. 9. 2017.
The party supports LGBT rights in the Czech Republic,Petra Dvořáková. Piráti milují. Pirátské vlajky tradičně na Prague Pride . piratskelisty.cz. Published on 17 August 2016. including the legalisation of same-sex marriage.
In January 2019 it was reported that the party has proposed the eventual introduction of a universal basic income.
2017 parliamentary electoral platform The party's four main campaign policies in the run-up to the 2017 elections were: Control of power and government spending through transparency and accountability Simplification of state bureaucracy by introducing e-government Supporting small businesses and e-commerce, addressing capital outflow of foreign-owned companies and tax avoidance via offshore financial centres