The Pirate Party of Austria (, PIRAT) is a

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

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and part of the global

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 ...

movement which advocates what has come to be known as

Pirate politics Pirate Party is a label adopted by various political parties worldwide that share a set of values and policies focused on civil rights in the digital age. The fundamental principles of Pirate Parties include freedom of information, freedom of ...

. It is mostly known for opposing the

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a plurilateral agreement, multilateral treaty for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement that did not enter into force. The agreement ai ...

. The party was founded by Florian Hufsky and Jürgen 'Juxi' Leitner during the run-up to the 2006 election in Austria, but failed to gather the necessary signatures to contest the election. On 14 March 2010, the PPÖ ran for municipal elections for its first time in the city of

Bregenz Bregenz (; ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost states of Austria, state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switzerland in the wes ...

and received 1.62% of the vote, however failed to win any seats. Christopher Clay, Marlies Wawra, Rodrigo Jorquera, Lukas Daniel Klausner and André Igler have been elected on 28 October 2012 to board members in the General Assembly of the Pirate Party Austria. Albert Gugerell has been elected as treasurer. In January Alexander Ofer, former member of the Tyrolean State Pirate Party, was expelled together with all state party members. After Ofers entering of the

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

the Pirate Party announced to come up to the ''Pirate Party Tyrol'' (Ofers new party he had founded before getting expelled. They successfully ran for a post in the city of Innsbruck). But Ofer said "Wir wollen mit der Piratenpartei Österreichs nichts zu tun haben, das sind Pfuscher." ''("We don't want to have anything to do with the Pirate Party of Austria , they are botchers"''). In 2012 the

social-liberal Social liberalism is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses social justice, social services, a mixed economy, and the expansion of civil and political rights, as opposed to classical liberalism which favors limited ...

daily newspaper ''

Der Standard ''Der Standard'' () is an Austrian daily newspaper published in Vienna. It is considered a newspaper of record for Austria. History and profile ''Der Standard'' was founded by Oscar Bronner as a financial newspaper and published its first editio ...

'' stated that the Pirates could be a competitor against

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *The Greens – The Green Alternative, Austria *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' * Greens of Andorra * The Greens (Benin) *The Greens (Bulgaria) * Greens of Bosnia and He ...

and the Freedom Party, and could become the new

Liberal Forum The Liberal Forum (, LiF) was a centrist, liberal political party in Austria. The party was active from February 1993 to January 2014, when the party merged into NEOS – The New Austria. A member of the Liberal International and the Allianc ...

, with the Pirate Party Austria is heading for National Assembly in 2013 and EU Elections in 2014. In municipal elections in Graz on 25 November 2012, the Pirates gained 2.68% of the vote and one seat. On 4 March 2014 Salzburg Piratenpartei started a

whistleblowing Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

initiative; at the base of the initiative is the use of the

GlobaLeaks GlobaLeaks is a free and open source software intended to enable secure and anonymous whistleblowing initiatives. The software is recognized as a Digital Public Good (DPG) by thDigital Public Goods Alliance History The project started on 15 D ...

software that enables anonymous whistleblowing. On 10 Dezember 2022 the Pirate Party left the

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 ...

; in the same vote they elected to remain an observer member of the

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 ...

External links

Official website

References

{{Austrian political parties

Pirate Party of Austria