5 ms·

> If you don't want to vote ANO then you vote ODS if you're more on the right (as in free market) and the Pirate party if you're more on the left. Can you exp

> If you don't want to vote ANO then you vote ODS if you're more on the right (as in free market) and the Pirate party if you're more on the left. Can you explain more what the platform of the "Pirate" party is? As an American I would have thought the the "Pirate" party would be far right libertarian (free market, downsize government, reduce or eliminate taxes).

TomMarius 8y ago
In the Czech Republic they're center to left, definitely not free market/libertarian. They propose government control of many issues like for example shared economy or housing, banking etc. At the same time yes, they propose to downsize the government and tax reduction, but not elimination. They also propose digitalization of government and reduction of bureaucracy, but they also want that as a base to build more control on. Many specifics of the Czech Republic are at play here, since the party is no longer a minor one and at the same time is the only major "non traditional" one (no historical baggage including people - actually that's very important) that isn't Babiš (ANO, but everyone knows the party is him, basically - including people in the party who went public), it attracts the interest of many very different people ranging from left wing radicals to free market anarchists; people who weren't as "radical" (they're not radical at all but definitely more than other parties) rather joined ODS (right, major party), ČSSD (left, almost irrelevant) or TOP09 (center, now totally irrelevant). Then the free market anarchists created their own party (Svobodní - "The Free Ones", never even became relevant except a very tiny little bit of relevance in the EU parliament) and the result is that Pirate party is more leftist. Sadly soon after conservatives have "attacked" (joined and changed the program) the party and made it conservative, and a lot of previously pro-free market people became conservative because of the immigration crisis and rapidly increasing EU influence that nobody here really likes, left or right (these same issues also gave rise to the fourth biggest party SPD, which is an openly racist pro-russian one, luckily they're largely irrelevant except for municipal politics in few places).
slim 8y ago
Pirates are different un each country. Because pirates are free
- lozaning 8y ago
  The code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules.
_Tev 8y ago
They're right in the center of the Cz political scene. The context is that we have very big gov't with lot of benefits, and (kind of, it's complicated) high taxes. In such situation left has nowhere else to go (defending status quo is not very popular), so it's full of (often stupid) populists. "Intellectual" elite is heavily leaning right, to the point of being anti-populist (they are regularly sacrificing votes just to virtue signal). Pirates seem like a non-bullshit party that tries to stray from both extremes. They had some PR fails (they sometimes seem amateurish), but mostly seem to be really good alternative for people wanting to limit the gov't but not cut it to little pieces.

TomMarius 8y ago

In the Czech Republic they're center to left, definitely not free market/libertarian. They propose government control of many issues like for example shared economy or housing, banking etc. At the same time yes, they propose to downsize the government and tax reduction, but not elimination. They also propose digitalization of government and reduction of bureaucracy, but they also want that as a base to build more control on. Many specifics of the Czech Republic are at play here, since the party is no longer a minor one and at the same time is the only major "non traditional" one (no historical baggage including people - actually that's very important) that isn't Babiš (ANO, but everyone knows the party is him, basically - including people in the party who went public), it attracts the interest of many very different people ranging from left wing radicals to free market anarchists; people who weren't as "radical" (they're not radical at all but definitely more than other parties) rather joined ODS (right, major party), ČSSD (left, almost irrelevant) or TOP09 (center, now totally irrelevant). Then the free market anarchists created their own party (Svobodní - "The Free Ones", never even became relevant except a very tiny little bit of relevance in the EU parliament) and the result is that Pirate party is more leftist. Sadly soon after conservatives have "attacked" (joined and changed the program) the party and made it conservative, and a lot of previously pro-free market people became conservative because of the immigration crisis and rapidly increasing EU influence that nobody here really likes, left or right (these same issues also gave rise to the fourth biggest party SPD, which is an openly racist pro-russian one, luckily they're largely irrelevant except for municipal politics in few places).

slim 8y ago

Pirates are different un each country. Because pirates are free

lozaning 8y ago
The code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules.

_Tev 8y ago

They're right in the center of the Cz political scene. The context is that we have very big gov't with lot of benefits, and (kind of, it's complicated) high taxes. In such situation left has nowhere else to go (defending status quo is not very popular), so it's full of (often stupid) populists. "Intellectual" elite is heavily leaning right, to the point of being anti-populist (they are regularly sacrificing votes just to virtue signal). Pirates seem like a non-bullshit party that tries to stray from both extremes. They had some PR fails (they sometimes seem amateurish), but mostly seem to be really good alternative for people wanting to limit the gov't but not cut it to little pieces.