Founded 12 July 2009 | ||
German name Piratenpartei Schweiz (PPS) French name Parti Pirate Suisse (PPS) Italian name Partito Pirata Svizzera (PPS) Romansh name Partida da Pirats Svizra (PPS) President Guillaume Saouli, Stefan Thöni | ||
The Pirate Party Switzerland (German: Piratenpartei Schweiz, French: Parti Pirate Suisse, Italian: Partito Pirata Svizzera, Romansh: Partida da Pirats Svizra) is a political party in Switzerland, based on the model of the Swedish Pirate Party. The party was founded on July 12, 2009 in Zürich by about 150 people. By the end of February 2012, the PPS had around about 1800 members.
The first election success happened on 7 March 2010 when Marc Wäckerlin was elected to the Winterthur city council.
Patrick Mächler of the PPS was head member of Pirate Parties International (PPI) from July 2009 to February 2010, the umbrella organisation of the international Pirate Party movement.
On 13 March 2011, the party achieved 0.8% of the votes in a local election in Lausanne. On 3 April, they obtained 0.56% of the vote in a regional election in Zurich. In the federal elections of October 2011, the party failed to win a seat, gathering 0.48% of the popular vote (11,616 votes). On 23 September 2012, PPS member Alex Arnold was elected as part-time mayor of Eichberg.