PRAGUE — The Czech Republic’s Pirate Party has the wind in its sails.

The young anti-establishment party has steadily gained support among Czech voters disenchanted with mainstream politics, becoming the third-largest party in parliament less than a decade after it was founded. That's a meteoric rise for a political startup that began with no resources and little political experience.

“There were so few in the party at the beginning that everybody was chairman or vice chairman of something,” said Pirate Chairman Ivan Bartoš. “But we’ve been growing every year because we work hard every day.”

The party is now looking ahead to the European Parliament election in May with confidence, and party officials say they expect to send at least five MEPs to Brussels. This would be five more than they currently have, but not impossible: POLITICO's projections predict the Pirates would win four seats.

The Czech Pirates are so far the most successful members of the European Pirates, an association of like-minded parties across Europe. While other Pirate parties, especially in Iceland and Sweden, scored early successes, they have lost ground in recent elections.

“You care about justice, about human rights, about democracy, about freedom of speech if you have enough money at the end of the month to pay your bills” — Ivan Bartoš

Bartoš worked as an IT engineer before becoming a member of the national parliament in 2017, when the Pirates scored nearly 11 percent of the nationwide vote — four times their 2013 result — and entered parliament for the first time.

As the third-biggest political force after the election, they were initially asked to join the government of then Prime Minister-elect Andrej Babiš, but the Pirates set high demands for entering a coalition.

Bartoš said his party’s conditions included banning politicians accused of a crime from serving in the coalition government and barring “incompetent” ministers from Cabinet.

“They just rejected it,” Bartoš said. It’s easy to see why: Shortly before the election, Babiš had been charged with fraud involving €2 million in European Union subsidies — which would have prevented him from becoming prime minister had he accepted the Pirates’ conditions.

Yet joining the opposition did not dent the Pirates’ popularity. On the contrary, they have since risen in the polls.

In October last year, the party finished a close second in the Prague municipal elections with 17 percent of the vote, more than triple its 2014 result. Pirate politician Zdeněk Hřib became the Czech capital’s mayor after the party formed a coalition with smaller blocs. The Pirates also joined the municipal government of the Czech Republic's second city, Brno.

Europe-wide changes

To explain the Czech Pirates’ popularity, analysts point to the general disillusionment with mainstream parties now transforming political landscapes throughout Europe.

Miloš Brunclík, a political scientist at Prague’s Charles University, said this wider democratic malaise is responsible both for the rise of the Pirates as well as the rapid ascension of the ruling ANO party, launched by Prime Minister Babiš in 2011.

“Both parties grew at the same time and their rhetoric was in some ways similar,” Brunclík said. “Both were anti-establishment parties and tried to capitalize on their anti-corruption image. And both tried to distinguish themselves from the traditional parties.”

It helped the Pirates that many voters from the center and right were casting about for a party to support, said Jakub Charvát, a political scientist at Prague’s Metropolitan University.

“A lot of their supporters came from the once-powerful center-right ODS,” he said. “And they attracted many young voters.”

Drawing inspiration from the first Pirate Party, founded in Sweden in 2006, the Czech Pirates advocate for direct democracy, transparency and freedom of information. But Bartoš stressed that his party’s program also includes social security policies.

“There is little partisan identification with the Pirates. They are popular but fragile” — Miloš Brunclík, political scientist at Prague’s Charles University

One Pirate proposal suggests the government transfer the tax burden from workers to certain sectors, such as coal mining and telecommunications, and eventually introduce a universal basic income.

“You care about justice, about human rights, about democracy, about freedom of speech if you have enough money at the end of the month to pay your bills,” Bartoš said. “About two-thirds of the people in the Czech Republic earn less than the average income.”

Policy proposals aside, Bartoš said he believes the Pirates’ principle of transparency has played a significant part in his party’s success.

“It’s time-consuming to report everything we say and do, but it pays,” he said. “If you allow people to see how you play politics, you gain their trust.”

In Prague, for example, the new mayor Hřib plans to put the party's ideas into practice for the first time by allowing residents to vote on how some of the municipality’s money should be allocated.

Also on his agenda are better digital services for citizens, greater investment in Prague’s aging transportation infrastructure, measures to alleviate the city’s housing shortage, and legislation to regulate the sharing economy.

Both Bartoš and Hřib regard success in Prague as vital to the party’s political future — a pilot study of sorts, as the mayor put it.

“This is a unique chance to change the way the city is managed and a unique opportunity for the Pirate Party to show a sort of demo version of how the party wants to manage the country,” Hřib said.

So far, their plan is working out: Taking over Prague’s City Hall appears to have boosted their popularity across the country.

According to a recent survey by the Public Opinion Research Center, Bartoš is now the second-most trusted politician in the Czech Republic, only behind Babiš.

Pirate parties may bring to mind hackers and digital disruption for many, but the Czech Pirates have cultivated a professional and competent image, analysts say.

“Their leading figures are professionals. Many of them have Ph.D.s, and they speak like professionals,” said Brunclík, the Charles University academic.

“Originally people thought they are a bunch of young hackers or the like, but they’ve been able to convince voters that they are competent.”

The Pirates are also keen to stress that despite their youth — Bartoš is 38, Hřib a year younger — and relative inexperience, they are not wide-eyed idealists.

Bartoš said his party would work with anyone in parliament, even the Communists or the far-right populist SPD, to implement its program. “Votes in the parliament don’t have colors. Either you have the votes or you don’t,” he said.

Analysts say that pragmatism will be crucial to the party’s future, as the party has not yet established a firm voter base.

“There is little partisan identification with the Pirates. They are popular but fragile,” said Brunclík. “But if they keep their image of a credible, authentic and competent party that did a great job in Prague, they could become the major challenger to Babiš."