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 political ideology ...
in
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 B ...
. 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 Political international, international non-profit and non-governmental organization with headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Formed in 2010, it serves as a worldwide organization for Pirate Party, Pir ...
and
European Pirate Party
The European Pirates (PIRATES) or European Pirate Party (PPEU) is an association of parties aspiring to be recognised as a European political party by the European Union. It was founded on 21 March 2014 at the European Parliament in Brussels ...
.
History
In January 2008, Matti Hiltunen registered the domain ''piraattipuolue.fi'' and set up a
BBS
BBS may refer to:
Ammunition
* BBs, BB gun metal bullets
* BBs, airsoft gun plastic pellets
Computing and gaming
* Bulletin board system, a computer server users dial into via dial-up or telnet; precursor to the Internet
* BIOS Boot Specificat ...
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 o ...
.
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 co ...
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 Just ...
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 of ...
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 p ...
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 a ...
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
Parliamentary elections
European Parliamentary elections
Municipal elections
Party chairs
![Harri Kivistö 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Harri_Kivist%C3%B6_2.jpg)
* 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
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 B ...
Registered political parties in Finland
Political parties established in 2008
Political parties supporting universal basic income
2008 establishments in Finland