When was your party established and who founded it?

The Pirate party was founded in 2009. Amongst the founders were Jerry Weyer and Sven Clement, who now is deputy of the party in the Chambre des Députés.

What, if any, are your links to the European blocs?

The Pirate party finds itself in terms of policy rather centrally orientated and in the core of our visions very European-friendly. We are the opinion that no other fraction of the European parliament defends the same political position, as we do. The Pirate party was established in Sweden in 2006. Other Pirate parties were founded in the same year, in Germany and Austria. In 2009, the Pirate party established more bases in further European countries, amongst those one in Luxembourg.

The Pirate party was founded successively in short timescales in different European countries. The symbolic same use of labels across Europe shows a strong link to Europe. The European closeness of the party emphasises the signed and declared manifestos, which are renewed in each European election year.

This year, the Luxembourgish Pirate party invited their European comrades to Luxembourg, to sign and to support the new European election program for 2019.

What do you consider the most important issues facing voters in Luxembourg?

Luxembourgish citizens are not very conscious of the fact that the European elections could have far-reaching repercussions on their actual social, financial and political life in Luxembourg. Luxembourgish voters do not seem to believe that the election of just 6 representatives, does have the required influential weight in the European parliament in Strasbourg.

Nonetheless, political topics such as ecology and economy must be carefully discussed, lapses in these subjects could set tongues wagging. Overall, the dominant theme in Europe is climate change and its effects on the continent. This will be an interesting issue to confront the voters and will certainly fuel one or the other debate, during the election campaign.

Name one thing you hope to accomplish if any of your candidates are successful?

The Pirate party’s challenge is to include the European citizens more into political decisions by giving them the right to have a vote. The political exclusion of the public leads to a general refusal in the population and downgrades the European beliefs by most EU citizens. A too heavy top-down dictation must be stopped, to open the way for more transparency and participation. A large number of heads of every European state defend mainly their own ideas and projects and neglect thus the real problems of citizens. In the future, grassroots problems could be solved on the communal and national level and do not need dictation from the top. Our investigation is to boost a bottom-up policy for more local affairs and transparency.

Please name the candidates representing your party in the European elections.

Starsky Flor, Christian Welter, Daniel Frères, Marie-Paule Dondelinger, Chris Bernard, and Lucie Kunakova.