Did the Czech Pirate Party, a junior member of the Czech coalition government, with the support of the European Union, propose to control wild mushroom and berry foraging in the same way as fishing and game hunting is regulated in the country? No, that's not true: the party has not proposed a measure to limit these popular activities and says the claim is a hoax.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) where it was published by TikTok on September 13, 2023 with a picture of the Czech Pirate Party leader and the Minister for Regional Development Ivan Bartos. The caption translated into English from Czech by Lead Stories staff reads:
The new proposal on the SSLP (Association of Wild Berry Pickers) the Pirate (Party) wants to create should be similar to the fishing or hunting associations. Simply put, anyone who wants to pick wild berries, will have to register, pass knowledge tests, and respect the daily limits on the amount and types of berries....This should be valid as of the 2024 picking season. It is all supported by the EU.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Sep 15 09:06:39 2023 UTC)
The Czech Pirate Party has never proposed such a measure and the claim is a hoax, the party spokeswoman Veronika Smidova told Lead Stories by phone.
Wild berry and mushroom picking is a common practice that is relished by many Czechs every year, and regulating it would be a highly unpopular political decision. There has been no debate, or a call, for limiting the activity and the current government does not consider that an option, Agriculture Minister Marek Vyborny told Rozhlas.cz, the state radio broadcaster, in an interview on August 7, 2023. Czechs picked almost 39,000 tons of wood berries and mushrooms worth czk 7.8 billion in 2022, according to the ministry.
The claim that the EU or a political opponent would seek to limit and control such popular activities as wild berry and mushroom foraging has been also used by political candidates ahead of general elections held in Poland in October 2023, according to one Politico article.
The Pirate Party, with two ministers in the cabinet led by the Civic Democrats party ODS, faced a determined misinformation campaign on social media and internet websites, ahead of Czech general election in October 2021. A list of some hoaxes targeting the party's political platform or individual representatives, including its dreadlocked leader Ivan Bartos, can be found on the party website here.
