“We will be a better opposition. One that has been missing here for three years,” declared the outgoing party chairman Ivan Bartoš.
However, the first pirated “press release” after his dismissal from the government last week did not differ much in its content from the statements of representatives of ANO or SPD: in it, the ODS was accused of cheating and trying to trade with the system of digitization of construction management.
The Pirates cannot criticize the laws they also stood behind. On the contrary, some began to argue with the government about who bears the credit for the positive changes. The Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Olga Richterová and the head of the Deputies’ Club Jakub Michálek claimed authorship of the increase in the parental allowance, which applies from January this year. When Minister of Labor Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL), who submitted the change to the government by law, objected, Michálek responded on social networks with the words: “What kind of clowns are these in the government? If we did not condition the support of Stanjur’s package, then parents with small children would be eating ‘clay’ in times of high prices.”
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Political scientists do not understand the party’s performance. “They exaggerated the press conference, it sounded unfair. It raised questions: Why were you silent in the government for three years? Why are you bringing it up now?” wondered political scientist Josef Mlejnek. “YES can use it in their marketing. Maybe they don’t realize it, they’re in a convulsion, so they’re kicking around,” he added.
Even his colleague Ladislav Mrklas from the CEVRO Institute does not understand the Pirates’ tactics. “Pirates were involved in everything. If there was any corruption in the ministries, it also falls on their heads. They had deputies there,” he noted.
“We’ll kick their ass”
The pirates approved their departure from the government in an internal party vote on Monday evening. “We are not running away from the fight. We are going to fight. We are finally going to kick the ass of both populists and semi-fashionistas on the one hand, as well as the conservative government, which has hindered our priorities and ideas for years,” said republican committee member Lukáš Hejduk at the forum.
The chairman of the Pirátů parliamentary club, Jakub Michálek, told Novinkám that the party will now monitor whether the government fulfills the promises made in the program, such as solutions to expensive housing, reform of the antimonopoly office, subsidies for entrepreneurs, etc. “We will be constructive, but a tough opposition,” he noted. The four pirate MPs are also preparing to interrogate members of the government with problems that citizens have turned to them with.
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MEP Markéta Gregorová also perceives the role of the Pirates in the Parliament in a similar way. The party is said to be different from the other opposition parties ANO and SPD. “People were used to listening only to criticism for criticism’s sake, or occupation of the lectern. That’s not our style. We will definitely not block government proposals that will move the Czech Republic forward and benefit the citizens,” she said.
However, the main word in the further direction will be the new presidency of the party, which the Pirates will elect in November. According to Senator Adély Šípová, whose nomination the Pirates are voting on at the forum, they should return to the topic of digitalization of state administration. “It will make life easier for citizens, companies and office employees and save huge financial resources,” she told Novinkám.
She did not tell how to grasp the topic so that the voters would trust the party after the debacle with the digitization of construction procedures. The current vice president Jana Holomčík Leitnerová does not want to talk about the new strategy, either, as she refused the nomination for the position of chief. “I will now be an active member and I will finally be able to criticize too,” she noted.
Mrklas thinks that the contradiction between the new presidency and the old parliamentary club can further unsettle the party. “It is not clear if the person who will lead them will have an influence on the people who are in the Chamber of Deputies. If the leftists take over, they will vote differently than the deputies want. The split in the party can be much bigger,” he concluded.
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