Pirate Party co-speaker Starsky Flor responded with disappointment to the recent departures of two of their municipal councillors, stressing the need for open dialogue and shared responsibility to steer the party through its current crisis.

The Pirate Party has been facing unrest for several weeks now. Following the recent departure of MP Ben Polidori, news broke that there are tensions between MPs Sven Clement and Marc Goergen, the latter alleging that the former took advantage of the party in the development of the MALT language app, and the former accusing the latter of systematic bullying.

Over the weekend, two of the party's municipal councillors, Steven Curfs from Mondercange and Vincenzo Turcarelli from Käerjeng, decided to now also leave the Pirate Party, citing disapproval over their management practices as their reason for departure.

Addressing the unrest in conversation with RTL, co-party speaker Starsky Flor labelled the announcement a surprise in an already difficult time.

Flor expressed particular disappointment over the means of communication used in both cases: "The statements were unfortunate of course, because it is easy to say that you're unhappy with party management. Naturally I would have preferred if they had contacted me beforehand to say that they were unhappy."

Flor noted that he informed party members of a recent statute and management adaptation on 8 August.

He went on to explain: "For too long we organised matters around a single person, now we have to ensure that more people have a say, and that they have the ability to not repeat mistakes of the past. As previously stated, we want to be fully transparent, improve dialogue and unity, and implement changes. And I hope that people will want to face those changes together with us. These difficult times are an opportunity for people to prove themselves."

As for the municipal mandates of the two former Pirate councillors, Flor announced that the party intends to claim both posts and hand them over to the party members with the second-most votes. However, both politicians are also able to claim the roles as independents.

Following their departure, RTL reached out to both politicians for comment. While Curfs was unreachable, Turcarelli initially agreed to an interview, but has since failed to respond to further enquiries.