Pirate Party leaders take responsibility for loss of parliamentary seats

The leadership of the Pirate Party takes responsibility for the loss of seats in the Chamber of Deputies after the weekend elections, chairman Ivan Bartoš informed party members. He indicated its forum in January will determine further steps.

Some Pirate Party members have called on Bartoš to resign, but the majority of those who voted in the poll on the party's website were against him stepping down.

Of the 37 seats that the coalition of the Pirate Party and Mayors and Independents (STAN) won in the elections, 33 will be held by STAN and only four by the Pirate Party. For the Pirates this is a considerable loss, given that in this electoral period they had 22 seats.

The result is due to the high number of preferential votes that STAN candidates received on the coalition ballots. Bartoš said a “disinformation campaign” waged by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš's ANO party and the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) also had a significant impact.