The Pirate Party ( fi, Piraattipuolue, sv, Piratpartiet) is a registered

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

. The group currently has around 173 paying members. The chairman of the party is Riikka Nieminen. The party is a member of

Pirate Parties International Pirate Parties International (PPI) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Formed in 2010, it serves as a worldwide organization for Pirate Parties, currently representing ...

and European Pirate Party.

History

In January 2008, Matti Hiltunen registered the domain ''piraattipuolue.fi'' and set up a BBS on the site. In May 2008, about 50 founding members of the party held the founding assembly in

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population ...

. In September 2008 the party started to collect the 5,000 needed to officially register the party. The party's goal was to take part in the 2009 European Parliamentary election. The supporter cards were collected by 1 June 2009, too late for the elections. The party was officially registered on 13 August 2009. In October 2009, the Pirate Party took part in the special municipal election of

Loviisa Loviisa (; sv, Lovisa ; formerly Degerby) is a municipality and town of inhabitants () on the southern coast of Finland. It is located from Helsinki and from Porvoo. About 43 per cent of the population is Swedish-speaking. The municipality c ...

with 1 candidate, but did not win a seat. The party's first major election was the

2011 Finnish parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 17 April 2011 after the termination of the previous parliamentary term. Advance voting, which included voting by Finnish expatriates, was held between 6 and 12 April with a turnout of 31.2%. The ...

with 127 candidates in 11 constituencies, gathering 0.5% of votes and becoming the largest party to have no seats in parliament. In the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...

it gathered 12,378 votes (0.7%). In the

2015 Finnish parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 19 April 2015, with advance voting taking place from 8 to 14 April. The 200 members of the Parliament of Finland were elected with the proportional D'Hondt method. There were 4,463,333 people entitl ...

the party got 25,105 or 0,8% of total votes, and was left without seats in the parliament. Consequently,

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Justi ...

decided to remove the Pirate Party among 5 others from its list of political parties due to lack of confidence in parliamentary voting for two elections. The party collected the needed 5,000 supporter cards again and was registered on 6 June 2016. In the 2017 municipal elections, the Pirate Party gained two seats on municipal councils, one in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

and one in

Jyväskylä Jyväskylä () is a city and municipality in Finland in the western part of the Finnish Lakeland. It is located about 150 km north-east from Tampere, the third largest city in Finland; and about 270 km north from Helsinki, the capital of ...

. Helsinki's council member Petrus Pennanen received 1,364 votes; Jyväskylä's council member Arto Lampila received 191 votes.

Political goals

In its political agenda, the party aims to develop open democracy, safeguard

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...

and increased transparency in politics. It wants to free information and culture from prohibitive restrictions and review the utility of the

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

system, all while increasing privacy and

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

. The party supports a

basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive an unconditional transfer payment, that is, without a means test or need to work. It would be received independently of ...

and wants to abolish

daylight saving time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typicall ...

Pirate Youth

The party has a youth organisation, the Pirate Youth ( fi, Piraattinuoret). It was founded on 5 February 2009 in Helsinki. It has an upper age-limit of 28 years. Membership of Piraattinuoret is free of charge.

Electoral performance

Piraattipuolueen ja Itsenäisyyspuolueen vaalikontit

Parliamentary elections

European Parliamentary elections

Municipal elections

Party chairs

* Carl E. Wahlman (2008) * Pasi Palmulehto (2008–2012) * Harri Kivistö (2012–2014) * Tapani Karvinen (2014–2016) * Jonna Purojärvi (2016–2018) * Petrus Pennanen (2018–2019) * Pekka Mustonen (2019–2020) * Riikka Nieminen (2020-)

References

External links

Pirate Party of FinlandInformation in English
{{Pirate Party

Registered political parties in Finland Political parties established in 2008 Political parties supporting universal basic income 2008 establishments in Finland