The remarkable rise of the Czech Pirate party

A new party is riding high in the Czech Republic, with the wind of change in its sails. Polls now suggest that the Czech Pirate Party, in coalition with a collection of mayors and independents, could win the largest share of the vote in the Czech Republic’s October elections.

It’s a remarkable turnaround for a party that at first sounds like the Czech answer to the monster raving loony party. But the Pirate Party has become a force to be reckoned with in Czech politics.

Formed in 2009 as one of many Pirate Parties around the world who came to international prominence following a police raid on the download site The Pirate Bay, the Czech Pirate Party was for a long time seen as a fringe movement. Its original aims were to reform copyright law and legalise marijuana, which are hardly the main concerns of swing voters.

It broke into the political mainstream in the Czech Republic’s 2017 elections, but only began to be seen as a serious player in 2019, when the largest demonstrations seen in the Czech Republic since the fall of communism took place in Prague.