Prague, March 18 (CTK) – The Czech Pirates want to win 10 percent of the vote in the autumn general election, said Ivan Bartos who defended the post of the party’s leader at its national conference on Saturday.
“This certainly is an ambitious goal. But if one looks at the eight-year-long history and development of the Pirate Party, it won more percent of the vote in every new election,” he said.
The party must address its possible voters in a better way than in the past, Bartos said.
The Pirates plan to invest up to five million crowns in the election campaign, he said.
Bartos said the Pirates must show the people that they consider political affairs serious, not a mere joke.
“People seem to me so decimated by the current politics and so restricted by all the regulations that we must show them that we take it seriously,” he said.
Bartos said people need to believe that the Pirates have a chance to change something after they enter the Chamber of Deputies.
The Czech Republic is “not moving towards a liberal society in which people trust one another. All parties represented in the Chamber of Deputies are to blame for this, even if they are not part of the government,” Bartos said.
The Pirates want to change this trend, he added.
Bartos said the priorities of the Pirates are people’s freedom, right to information and right to privacy.
According to the STEM opinion poll released on Friday, the Pirates would win 5.5 percent of the vote, or slightly above the threshold to enter parliament. The Czech Pirate Party was founded in 2009 and they won 2.66 percent of the vote in the 2013 general election.
Bartos said Prague, Central Bohemia, South Moravia and Moravia-Silesia were the regions crucial for the party to succeed in the elections.
Prague councillor Jakub Michalek will be the election leader of the Pirates in Prague, Bartos will lead the election candidates in Central Bohemia, marketing expert Radek Holomcik will be the leader in South Moravia, and IT analyst Lukas Cernohorsky in Moravia-Silesia.
Bartos said the Pirates would approve the final version of their election programme in April. The programme will have 15 chapters, each chapter will cover the work of one government ministry and it will be long only one page, he said.
The Pirates seek an electronic civil service, curbing of red tape and development of knowledge economy based on science and research. They promote direct democracy, a transparent state, removal of information monopolies, rules for lobbying, legalisation of cannabis and limited powers for distraint officers.
