Thread by @_JakubJanda

THREAD: Crash course on possible Czech October election winner:

Czech Republic holds general (parliamentary) elections in October. Current governing parties (centrist/populist ANO, corrupted social democrats ČSSD and treasonous Communists KSČM) are all losing the popular support

NOW: ANO dropping to some 20+%, ČSSD and KSČM dancing around 5% threshold needed for entering the next chamber.

POSSIBLE WINNERS: The centrist-liberal coalition (Pirates and Mayors party (STAN)) leading polls with 27-30 %. They are nicknamed “PirSTAN”.

Yesterday,PirSTAN launched their election manifesto which is worth digging into as they might win October elections:

General foreign policy:

Usual EU/NATO priorities,Eastern Partnership + Western Balkans: usual Czech mainstream foreign policy, including future EU memberships)

PirSTAN offer no stupid anti-US or anti-NATO wording.

Human rights policy:

PirSTAN will “support civil society, independent media and dissident groups within authoritarian regimes”. They want to “offer safe heaven to human rights fighters”.

Human rights policy:

They want to “assist oppressed groups globally, using European diplomacy, financial support for NGOs and targeted assistant to individuals”.

PirSTAN plans to adopt the Czech version of Magnitsky Act (sanctions regime against human rights violators).

Russia policy:

PirSTAN “want to have good relations with Russia”, but there needs to be good will on both sides. Without that, it is impossible to have mutually beneficial relations”.

PirSTAN leaders have been very hawkish on Russia during all major incidents in recent years.

China policy:

PirSTAN wants to “further deepen economic cooperation and diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and to support cooperation between cities and companies”.

Context: Pirates have strong track record of being the most hawkish Czech political party on China.

PirSTAN aggressively oppose the Chinese Communist Party. PirSTAN strongly supported a Czech law establishing FDI screening mechanism (effective since 2021).

China is “surveillance dictatorship which - against will of its population - violently applies one-country two systems"

PirSTAN will “always support free and informed decisions of citizen against governmental oppression.”

They call Taiwan “democratic, digitally developing country” with which “it makes sense for the Czech Republic to expand relations in regards to sharing tech knowhow.”

“No other country will dictate with whom we will have such relations”

On Chinese economic threats:
“Czech Republic is part of the strongest trading bloc in the world (= the EU), so the question is why not to use this to support human rights abroad.
piratiastarostove.cz/program/zahran…

Defense policy:

PirSTAN promises Czech “2% GDP defence spending by 2025”, they want Czech Republic to be a “self-confident EU and NATO partner, contributing with a fair share to (collective) defence”, calling out “hybrid threats”.

Support for PESCO and “one billion CZK defence research increase”, they want a “Czech satellite on the Earth orbit”.

PirStan support “(Czech) military presence in the Baltic states”, which currently means Czech deployments within NATO EfP to Latvia and Lithuania.

PirSTAN will “make sure companies from non-democratic states will not enter Czech critical infrastructure”, which mainly means 5G networks and nuclear power plants (where PirSTAN pushed aggressively against Russian and Chinese participation).

piratiastarostove.cz/program/zodpov…

CONTEXT: After 2021 fall, we might see a Green German Chancellor and possibly a Pirate Czech Prime Minister, both from European Greens Group.

Czech pro-Kremlin President Zeman will make all the effort to sabotage a Pirate Prime Minister getting the post, that is clear now.

WHO TO FOLLOW:

PirSTAN Prime Minister candidate @PiratIvanBartos

PirSTAN Interior Minister candidate @Vit_Rakusan

PirSTAN Justice Minister candidate @JakubMichalek19

PirSTAN Foreign/Defense Minister candidate @JanLipavsky

Leading Pirate MEP @MarketkaG focusing on Russia