The pan-European political movement Volt, made up of citizens from all over Europe, presented its programme for the European elections, with the hope of entering the European Parliament on Wednesday 8 May in Brussels.
“Our ultimate goal is to have at least 25 elected representatives from seven Member States to form a group in Parliament”, Marcela Valkova, second candidate on the Volt list for the Dutch Electoral College (Belgium), told the press.
Founded in 2017, this movement of around 10,000 members, more than 70% of whom had never belonged to a political party before, brings together European citizens who, having been deeply disappointed by traditional parties, share the desire to be directly involved in the European public sphere.
“I had never been involved in politics until a few years ago, when I decided that I could no longer be a spectator [....] and it is not a unique feeling, it is actually a pan-European feeling”, explained Kathrine Richter, fourth candidate on the Volt list for the Dutch Electoral College.
The Volt movement is now active in all Member States and has 146 candidates in eight of them (Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom) for the European elections to be held from 23 to 26 May. These candidates defend the same programme, under the same party name, with the same logo, making Volt the first true pan-European political party.
Hoping to bring the voice of citizens to the political level to change the European Union, the movement aims to be structured and pragmatic.
“We have already seen many citizen movements around the world. And what we see is that they are not always very well structured. What we are saying with Volt is that we need a real, long-term platform so that we, as citizens, can engage, dialogue with each other, develop policies, develop real solutions”, said Christophe Calis, party leader for the Dutch Electoral College.
He then encouraged all those who would doubt the realism of their ideas to read not only the summary of their programme, but also the 62-page document detailing each of their proposals, while emphasising that Volt has among its members European officials who are familiar with the functioning of the EU institutions.
Among its proposals, Volt wants to create online participation platforms and citizen assemblies. He advocates a federal Europe with a European government led by a Prime Minister elected by Parliament and a President elected by European citizens by universal suffrage.
He also wants to give Parliament the right of legislative initiative and advocates the creation of genuine pan-European political parties, in order to put an end to coalitions formed by national parties “with often conflicting interests”.
Finally, in order to ensure the EU's capacity for action, Volt recommends that the decision be made by a qualified majority of the Member States within the EU Council.
To consult the Volt program: https://bit.ly/2LF2RzI. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot - intern)