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Whatever happened to the pirates of politics? – POLITICO Europe

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Europe’s political pirates have broken into two fleets as the anti-establishment movement tries to retain relevance 15 years after its anarchic beginnings. 

One group has adopted some traditional party structures many in the movement long eschewed — and may finally become part of an EU coalition government. 

The other has stuck to its anti-establishment sensibility, remaining loosely organized — and has mostly stayed on the outside looking in.

The divergence has left the political movement in a transitional phase nearly a generation after it first burst onto the scene, fueled by a growing wariness of mainstream politics and vowing to bring a tech-first, radically transparent ethos to politics. 

While the broader movement has stagnated in many European countries — the success short-lived as parties struggled with infighting and conventional politics — some of the more developed parties are making gains. There are currently four pirate members in the European Parliament, as well as pirates in the national legislatures of Luxembourg, Iceland and the Czech Republic. A pirate is even serving as mayor of Prague. 

And come October, the Czech pirate party may finally secure enough votes in the general election to enter the government’s ruling coalition. That would make them the first pirate party to be part of a national government within the EU — a major accomplishment. And it would put them in a rare league with other new age European protest parties, like the 5Stars movement in Italy, that actually vaulted into political power on pledges to use technology to bring people directly into government decision-making. 

“It’s a new wind,” said Ivan Bartoš, head of the Czech Pirates, stressing the themes that have made the pirates popular for a small-but-vocal slice of Europeans: “No oligarch or big sponsors” and “completely transparent.” 

Outsiders become insiders

Even as some pirate parties have grown increasingly willing to look like — and act like — a traditional political party, they insist they still represent a different approach. 

Pirates first gained attention touting a tech-savviness, appealing to people who cared about issues like legalizing free digital copies of books and music. Some members helped create software that gave average people a direct say in what policies that pirate party pushed.

“What’s really special about our movement is that we understand technology, we understand how important digital rights are,” said German Pirate MEP Patrick Breyer. “We have quite a radical approach to transparency.” 

Still, the pirates who have managed to carve out a role in national and European politics say there is also a need to be pragmatic and work across party lines.

“In hard times, cooperation always gives you better results than competition,” said Bartoš, the Czech leader.

Their political rivals, however, don’t necessarily see the pirates as pragmatic, saying their approach makes it difficult to tackle sensitive policy issues. 

The pirates presented “something new” that “was sexy in the Czech political scene,” said MEP Tomáš Zdechovský, a member of the right-leaning Czech party KDU-ČSL. But, he added, “in many things, they are very naïve.”

One-hit wonders?

In the early years, the pirate movement gained adherents for the same reason it would soon stumble — it hated politics. 

“None of us wanted to be politicians,” said Rick Falkvinge, who founded Europe’s first pirate party in Sweden in 2006. 

Initially, he said, the party was narrowly focused on “copyrights, patents and privacy.” 

Much of the party’s early momentum came from the debate around Pirate Bay, an illegal file-sharing service that Swedish police raided in mid-2006. 

“We were just so frustrated with politicians not understanding something that was fundamental to our daily lives as the internet,” said Falkvinge, who is no longer directly involved with the party. 

The Swedish pirates quickly inspired other pirate parties across Europe. The group took 7.1 percent of the popular vote in Sweden during the 2009 European Parliament election, a major leap for such a young party that trashed mainstream politics.

“It was something as simple as not being allowed to copy chapters of books during my studies,” said Mattias Bjärnemalm, a policy advisor for the Green group at the European Parliament, recalling his decision to join the Swedish Pirate Party shortly after its founding.

By 2011, the German Pirate Party took nearly 9 percent of the vote in a local Berlin election, entering the state parliament. 

But the early electoral success in Germany was quickly quashed. Within the party, members say there was a shift in press coverage — from treating the movement as a colorful political curiosity to simply covering “gossip,” “arguments” and “unfortunate things people posted on Twitter,” said Breyer, the German MEP. 

“At first, the German Pirate Party was hyped by the media,” he argued. “Afterwards, basically the opposite was the case.”

There were also accusations from outside the party that the German Pirates had taken on members with far-right views. Separately, a grizzly murder-suicide in 2016 involving a pirate politician took its toll.

Former German pirate politicians point to the party’s internal divisions and lack of organization.

“The party’s bodies even ignored their own decisions on how to run things, what to say,” said Martin Delius, an ex-pirate who is now a member of the left-wing Die Linke party. 

It is not unusual, though, for a popular movement to gain swift traction as people rush to its insurgent message, and then falter as the movement rapidly grows unexpectedly.

“It was a very common trajectory,” said Bjärnemalm, the European Parliament adviser who is a member of the Swedish Pirates. “They have a first success, and then they implode because they didn’t know how to deal with that success. And a lot of the time, the members unify more on what they’re not than what they agree on.”

A second life

Despite the electoral disappointments in countries such as Sweden and Germany, the pirate party has lived on — and done well in some countries. 

Parties that ultimately won seats in national parliaments grew “incrementally,” said Sven Clement, president of Luxembourg’s pirate party and a member of the country’s parliament. 

“We can be dogmatic when it counts but are often open to negotiate the best and most pragmatic solution,” he said, pointing out that Luxembourg’s pirates have voted with both the government and the opposition, depending on the issue. 

In Luxembourg, the pirates have emerged as one of the few alternatives in a political system that has traditionally strayed very little from the status quo.

Clement, one of two pirates in the Luxembourg parliament, has developed a reputation as a straight-talker willing to take on the government. 

He was one of the rare voices critical of the Grand Duchy when the country’s role as a tax haven hit international headlines earlier this year, and has taken the government to court in a bid to make it more transparent. He also led the charge against covid vaccine queue jumpers and forced the country to commit to building a privacy-friendly covid app.

Luxembourgers like what they see. Clement’s popularity has surged in the pandemic, with his approval ratings at one point climbing more than any other politician.

CZECH REPUBLIC NATIONAL PARLIAMENT ELECTION POLL OF POLLS

For more polling data from across Europe visit POLITICO Poll of Polls.

Other pirate parties that broadened beyond their founding policy issues — copyright and patent reform, digital rights — have also done well. 

The Czech Pirates’ Bartoš said the movement’s ethos can be applied to all government decisions. Emphasizing data analysis, for instance, will help craft “good agricultural reform, or pension reform, which is needed,” Bartoš argued. 

There’s also a growing realization in countries like Germany that pirates need a well-constructed ship. That means political staffers. It means parliamentary assistants.

“I think we are experiencing an increasing professionalization,” said the German Pirates’ Breyer, who like the other pirates in European Parliament sits with the Greens/European Free Alliance group.  

Then there are other countries across Europe with smaller pirate parties where a strongly anti-establishment vibe and diffuse organizational approach persists. 

In France, for instance, the pirate party’s raison d’être is to overhaul the entire system. 

“Emmanuel Macron is the king of France,” said Florie Marie, a spokesperson for the French Pirate Party who also serves as vice chair of the board of the European Pirate Party. 

“The French constitution and the French Republic — I want to change it all,” she said.

The result is that two types of pirate parties have emerged, said Clement, the president of Luxembourg’s pirate party.

There are the few “well-established” parties with burgeoning political infrastructure, Clement said. Then there are “all the other parties — and it’s very difficult sometimes to find the common ground, or the consensus between those two approaches,” he added. 

Nevertheless, Clement emphasized that the two groups can work together. 

“The parties that have success need to do more to help the parties that have less success,” he said, predicting smaller parties “will mature as well.”

A question of impact

If the Czech Pirate Party does become part of the country’s ruling coalition after the October election, it would be the first real test of whether the movement can turn its philosophy into concrete polities on the national level. 

Pirate critics have long insisted the movement’s few elected politicians are ill-equipped for the realities of policymaking, especially on issues that naturally clash with calls for complete transparency. 

“The naivety of these young IT guys — it’s really very huge,” said Czech MEP Zdechovský, adding, “we cannot be transparent” on issues like intelligence and the military. 

“If the things are transparent too much, you are giving information — especially about the critical structure of the Czech Republic or of the European Union — to our enemies,” he said. 

But current and former pirate party members insist the movement’s value goes beyond whether it can simply enter a ruling coalition. 

“It’s the transnational aspect that has kept the movement alive,” said the Swedish Pirates’ Bjärnemalm. “It doesn’t matter if we have national setbacks, we’re still relevant, and our ideas are still being pushed somewhere.”

Cornelius Hirsch contributed data analysis. Vincent Manancourt contributed reporting.

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Virginia Democrats advance efforts to protect abortion, voting rights, marriage equality

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November 14, 2024

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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democrats who control both chambers of the Virginia legislature are hoping to make good on promises made on the campaign trail, including becoming the first Southern state to expand constitutional protections for abortion access.

The House Privileges and Elections Committee advanced three proposed constitutional amendments Wednesday, including a measure to protect reproductive rights. Its members also discussed measures to repeal a now-defunct state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and ways to revise Virginia’s process to restore voting rights for people who served time for felony crimes.

“This meeting was an important next step considering the moment in history we find ourselves in,” Democratic Del. Cia Price, the committee chair, said during a news conference. “We have urgent threats to our freedoms that could impact constituents in all of the districts we serve.”

The at-times raucous meeting will pave the way for the House and Senate to take up the resolutions early next year after lawmakers tabled the measures last January. Democrats previously said the move was standard practice, given that amendments are typically introduced in odd-numbered years. But Republican Minority Leader Todd Gilbert said Wednesday the committee should not have delved into the amendments before next year’s legislative session. He said the resolutions, particularly the abortion amendment, need further vetting.

“No one who is still serving remembers it being done in this way ever,” Gilbert said after the meeting. “Certainly not for something this important. This is as big and weighty an issue as it gets.”

The Democrats’ legislative lineup comes after Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, to the dismay of voting-rights advocates, rolled back a process to restore people’s civil rights after they completed sentences for felonies. Virginia is the only state that permanently bans anyone convicted of a felony from voting unless a governor restores their rights.

“This amendment creates a process that is bounded by transparent rules and criteria that will apply to everybody — it’s not left to the discretion of a single individual,” Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, the patron of the voting rights resolution, which passed along party lines, said at the news conference.

Though Democrats have sparred with the governor over their legislative agenda, constitutional amendments put forth by lawmakers do not require his signature, allowing the Democrat-led House and Senate to bypass Youngkin’s blessing.

Instead, the General Assembly must pass proposed amendments twice in at least two years, with a legislative election sandwiched between each statehouse session. After that, the public can vote by referendum on the issues. The cumbersome process will likely hinge upon the success of all three amendments on Democrats’ ability to preserve their edge in the House and Senate, where they hold razor-thin majorities.

It’s not the first time lawmakers have attempted to champion the three amendments. Republicans in a House subcommittee killed a constitutional amendment to restore voting rights in 2022, a year after the measure passed in a Democrat-led House. The same subcommittee also struck down legislation supporting a constitutional amendment to repeal an amendment from 2006 banning marriage equality.

On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers voted 16-5 in favor of legislation protecting same-sex marriage, with four Republicans supporting the resolution.

“To say the least, voters enacted this (amendment) in 2006, and we have had 100,000 voters a year become of voting age since then,” said Del. Mark Sickles, who sponsored the amendment as one of the first openly gay men serving in the General Assembly. “Many people have changed their opinions of this as the years have passed.”

A constitutional amendment protecting abortion previously passed the Senate in 2023 but died in a Republican-led House. On Wednesday, the amendment passed on party lines.

If successful, the resolution proposed by House Majority Leader Charniele Herring would be part of a growing trend of reproductive rights-related ballot questions given to voters. Since 2022, 18 questions have gone before voters across the U.S., and they have sided with abortion rights advocates 14 times.

The voters have approved constitutional amendments ensuring the right to abortion until fetal viability in nine states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Ohio and Vermont. Voters also passed a right-to-abortion measure in Nevada in 2024, but it must be passed again in 2026 to be added to the state constitution.

As lawmakers debated the measure, roughly 18 members spoke. Mercedes Perkins, at 38 weeks pregnant, described the importance of women making decisions about their own bodies. Rhea Simon, another Virginia resident, anecdotally described how reproductive health care shaped her life.

Then all at once, more than 50 people lined up to speak against the abortion amendment.

“Let’s do the compassionate thing and care for mothers and all unborn children,” resident Sheila Furey said.

The audience gave a collective “Amen,” followed by a round of applause.

___

Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

___

Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.

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Trump chooses anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary

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November 14, 2024

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NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump says he will nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, putting him in charge of a massive agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.

“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site announcing the appointment. Kennedy, he said, would “Make America Great and Healthy Again!”

Kennedy, a former Democrat who ran as an independent in this year’s presidential race, abandoned his bid after striking a deal to give Trump his endorsement with a promise to have a role in health policy in the administration.

He and Trump have since become good friends, with Kennedy frequently receiving loud applause at Trump’s rallies.

The expected appointment was first reported by Politico Thursday.

A longtime vaccine skeptic, Kennedy is an attorney who has built a loyal following over several decades of people who admire his lawsuits against major pesticide and pharmaceutical companies. He has pushed for tighter regulations around the ingredients in foods.

With the Trump campaign, he worked to shore up support among young mothers in particular, with his message of making food healthier in the U.S., promising to model regulations imposed in Europe. In a nod to Trump’s original campaign slogan, he named the effort “Make America Healthy Again.”

It remains unclear how that will square with Trump’s history of deregulation of big industries, including food. Trump pushed for fewer inspections of the meat industry, for example.

Kennedy’s stance on vaccines has also made him a controversial figure among Democrats and some Republicans, raising question about his ability to get confirmed, even in a GOP-controlled Senate. Kennedy has espoused misinformation around the safety of vaccines, including pushing a totally discredited theory that childhood vaccines cause autism.

He also has said he would recommend removing fluoride from drinking water. The addition of the material has been cited as leading to improved dental health.

HHS has more than 80,000 employees across the country. It houses the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Medicare and Medicaid programs and the National Institutes of Health.

Kennedy’s anti-vaccine nonprofit group, Children’s Health Defense, currently has a lawsuit pending against a number of news organizations, among them The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy took leave from the group when he announced his run for president but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.

__ Seitz reported from Washington.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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In Cyprus, Ukrainians learn how to dispose of landmines that kill and maim hundreds

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November 14, 2024

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NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — In a Cypriot National Guard camp, Ukrainians are being trained on how to identify, locate and dispose of landmines and other unexploded munitions that litter huge swaths of their country, killing and maiming hundreds of people, including children.

Analysts say Ukraine is among the countries that are the most affected by landmines and discarded explosives, as a result of Russia’s ongoing war.

According to U.N. figures, some 399 people have been killed and 915 wounded from landmines and other munitions since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, equal to the number of casualties reported from 2014-2021. More than 1 in 10 of those casualties have been children.

The economic impact is costing billions to the Ukrainian economy. Landmines and other munitions are preventing the sowing of 5 million hectares, or 10%, of the country’s agricultural land.

Cyprus stepped up to offer its facilities as part of the European Union’s Military Assistance Mission to Ukraine. So far, almost 100 Ukrainian armed forces personnel have taken part in three training cycles over the last two years, said Cyprus Foreign Ministry spokesperson Theodoros Gotsis.

“We are committed to continuing this support for as long as it takes,” Gotsis told the Associated Press, adding that the Cyprus government has covered the 250,000 euro ($262,600) training cost.

Cyprus opted to offer such training owing to its own landmine issues dating back five decades when the island nation was ethnically divided when Turkey invaded following a coup that sought union with Greece. The United Nations has removed some 27,000 landmines from a buffer zone that cuts across the island, but minefields remain on either side. The Cypriot government says it has disposed of all anti-personnel mines in line with its obligations under an international treaty that bans the use of such munitions.

In Cyprus, Ukrainians undergo rigorous theoretical and practical training over a five-week Basic Demining and Clearance course that includes instruction on distinguishing and safely handling landmines and other explosive munitions, such as rockets, 155 mm artillery shells, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells.

Theoretical training uses inert munitions identical to the actual explosives.

Most of the course is comprised of hands-on training focusing on the on-site destruction of unexploded munitions using explosives, the chief training officer told the Associated Press. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he’s not authorized to disclose his identity for security reasons.

“They’re trained on ordnance disposal using real explosives,” the officer said. “That will be the trainees’ primary task when they return.”

Cypriot officials said the Ukrainian trainees did not want to be either interviewed or photographed.

Defusing discarded munitions or landmines in areas where explosive charges can’t be used — for instance, near a hospital — is not part of this course because that’s the task of highly trained teams of disposal experts whose training can last as long as eight months, the officer said.

Trainees, divided into groups of eight, are taught how to operate metal detectors and other tools for detecting munitions like prodders — long, thin rods which are used to gently probe beneath the ground’s surface in search of landmines and other explosive ordnance.

Another tool is a feeler, a rod that’s used to detect booby-trapped munitions. There are many ways to booby-trap such munitions, unlike landmines which require direct pressure to detonate.

“Booby-trapped munitions are a widespread phenomenon in Ukraine,” the chief training officer explained.

Training, primarily conducted by experts from other European Union countries, takes place both in forested and urban areas at different army camps and follows strict safety protocols.

The short, intense training period keeps the Ukrainians focused.

“You see the interest they show during instruction: they ask questions, they want to know what mistakes they’ve made and the correct way of doing it,” the officer said.

Humanitarian data and analysis group ACAPS said in a Jan. 2024 report that 174,000 sq. kilometers (67,182 sq. miles) or nearly 29% of Ukraine’s territory needs to be surveyed for landmines and other explosive ordnance.

More than 10 million people are said to live in areas where demining action is needed.

Since 2022, Russian forces have used at least 13 types of anti-personnel mines, which target people. Russia never signed the 1997 Ottawa Convention banning the use of anti-personnel mines, but the use of such mines is nonetheless considered a violation of its obligations under international law.

Russia also uses 13 types of anti-tank mines.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines said in its 2023 Landmine Monitor report that Ukrainian government forces may have also used antipersonnel landmines in contravention of the Mine Ban Treaty in and around the city of Izium during 2022, when the city was under Russian control.

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