The results are in from the national elections in the Czech Republic — and while the overall outcome is troubling, there are important victories to celebrate.
The Czech Pirate Party scored just about 9% in the elections, securing 18 seats in parliament, confirming their position as one of the strongest opposition forces in the country. In a challenging political climate, they succeeded in surpassing the extremist far right and saw the far left fail to enter parliament entirely.
“Although the overall result for the country is not good, there are also positive outcomes. We outran the extremist far right as wanted, and the far left did not make it at all.” — Zdeněk Hřib, party leader of the Czech Pirates
However, the general election result also marks a concerning shift, with Andrej Babiš and his ANO movement returning to power — a development that underscores the vital role the Pirates will now play in defending democracy, transparency, and fundamental rights as a strong and principled opposition.
“Today’s result is a reminder that democracy can never be taken for granted. We congratulate our Czech colleagues for their resilience, their brilliant campaign, and their determination to stand as a democratic alternative against populism and extremism.” — Florian Roussel, Chair of the European Pirate Party
The European Pirate Party stands firmly behind the Czech Pirates in their continued fight for a free, open, and democratic society.
The Pirate Party Germany held its General Assembly on September 27 and 28 in Dudweiler, Germany and elected their 19th Federal Board.
Lilia Kayra Kuyumcu was elected as the new Chair. At just 18 years old, she is the youngest Chair in the history of the German Pirate Party.
She will be joined by Denis Klüver as Vice-Chair, Jutta Dietrich as Treasurer, and Babak Tubis, Wolf Vincent Lübcke, Nick Neumann, and Karsten Wehner as Board Members.
We welcome the new leadership and hope to hear from them on the international stage. We also extend thanks to the outgoing board members, who we also hope will work with us more on the international stage.
Congratulations to the new Federal Board of the Pirate Party Germany!
Scanning all messages, photos and files, without consent or even suspicion is a major breach of our right to privacy and a huge security threat. Nevertheless, the European lawmakers are still pushing through with the so-called Chat Control legislation. Under the pretence that it would protect kids from online abuse, all checks and balances for the protection of our privacy are dismantled. And scientists already concluded that Chat Control will not work.
It undermines the democracy, in its peoples ability to do those checks. Coordinated in private communications have been around for longer than Democracy itself. Now the ability to do those remotely (Online) is in danger, and the technology to execute on ‘Chat Control’ exists.
We propose legislation of another approach. Limiting our Governments’ abilities is one of the methods to apply law, so legislature to forbid our governments from using this technology should be developed.
Tuesday 30 September 18.30h CEST – Hosted by Pirate MEP Markéta Gregorová (Greens/EFA)
Guest experts:
Carmela Troncoso – from the Security and Privacy Engineering (SPRING) Laboratory. It is a research group at EPFL – École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland
Joachim – Representative of the Fight Chat Control initiative; will bring the citizen’s perspective on how public pressure shapes the debate.
Udbhav Tiwari – VP, Strategy and Global Affairs, Signal
Asha Allen – Director of The Centre for Democracy & Technology (CDT) Europe
The government should not have access to all the messages or photos you send. Period.
