The Pirate Party (, ) is a

Pirate Party Pirate Party is a label adopted by various Political party, political parties worldwide that share a set of values and policies focused on Civil and political rights, civil rights in the digital age. The fundamental principles of Pirate Partie ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

that was registered as a political party from 2009 to 2023. The group currently has around 173 paying members. The chairman of the party is Pekka Mustonen. The party is a member of

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

and

European Pirate Party The European Pirates (PIRATES) or European Pirate Party (PPEU) is a pirate European political alliance. Despite its organisation and sometimes being referred to as a "European party" or "transnational party", the European Pirate Party does n ...

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 is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

. 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 (; ; formerly Degerby) is a town in Finland, located on the southern coast of the country. Loviisa is situated in the eastern part of the Uusimaa region. The population of Loviisa is approximately , while the Loviisa sub-region, sub-regi ...

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. Early voting, Advance voting, which included voting by Finnish expatriates, was held between 6 and 12 April with a turnout o ...

with 127 candidates in 11 constituencies, receiving 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 (EU) between 22 and 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 field ...

it won 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 entit ...

the party received 25,105 or 0.8% of total votes, and was left without seats in the parliament. Consequently, the

Ministry of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

de-registered the party for failing to win seats in two consecutive parliamentary elections. The party collected the required 5,000 supporter cards again and was re-registered on 6 June 2016. After failing to win seats in the next two parliamentary elections, it was de-registered again in 2023. In the 2017 municipal elections, the Pirate Party gained two seats on municipal councils, one in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

and one in

Jyväskylä Jyväskylä () is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Central Finland. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Jyväskylä is approximately , while the Jyväskylä sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately ...

. Helsinki council member Petrus Pennanen received 1,364 votes; Jyväskylä council member Arto Lampila received 191 votes. Both lost their seats in the municipal elections of 2021.

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' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

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 sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

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 rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...

. The party supports a

universal basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive a minimum income in the form of an unconditional transfer payment, i.e., without a means test or need to perform Work (hu ...

and wants to abolish

daylight saving time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time, daylight time (Daylight saving time in the United States, United States and Daylight saving time in Canada, Canada), or summer time (British Summer Time, United Kingdom, ...

Pirate Youth

The party has a youth organisation, the Pirate Youth (). 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.

Election results

Parliament of Finland

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

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