Damian Boeselager will be the first representative of the pan-European citizen movement Volt to sit in the European Parliament, either in the Greens/EFA or ALDE&R groups or among non-attached Members. Considering that the Spitzenkandidaten process is a step in the right direction, he intends to act to build European democracy in the long term. (Interview by Damien Genicot)
Agence Europe - How did you feel when you learned of your election?
Damian Boeselager - It was quite stressful and I was extremely happy because I knew it was also important for the movement to show that, in about two years, it was possible to get a seat in the European Parliament to send a positive message.
250,000 people voted for me within Germany but there is also another 250,000 people who voted for Volt with the same program, the same name, across the continent.
[Volt had 146 candidates running in eight different Member States - EUROPE 12250/6, editor’s note].
In a sense, although this is not true from a legal perspective, it means that, from an emotional point of view, I am the first parliamentarian to be voted in from citizens across Europe.
What will be your priorities for the coming legislature?
There are three core pillars of our program that I will try to make work.
The first is the EU reform. How to build European democracy in the long term. In particular, we want to change the electoral system to make it fairer because in France, for example, you need a million euros. And in Italy, 150,000 signatures must be collected. This has to be changed and if I can work on that, it will be a huge success for me.
The second big area is definitely the question of how we can make a sustainable, forward-looking and normative industrial policy, in particular by setting the frame for a European energy turn. It definitely includes fighting climate breakdown.
The third would be to build a fairer and more sustainable society. This includes the question of a European migration system, an asylum system, but also the fight against climate change with the question of CO2 taxes and so on. But all this will depend on the parliamentary committees I will be into.
Are you negotiating to join the Greens/EFA Group or the ALDE&R Group?
My negotiating mandates are with these two groups.
Over the next weekend, it will be the movement - all Volt members in Europe - that will vote and decide which of these two groups we will join, or whether we will remain independent.
The decision will be taken very much on the basis of where we can implement our policies the best. That is what matters most.
Is there already a trend emerging?
No, I would tell you otherwise. Negotiations are ongoing, so I don't know what final offers I will get from both groups.
Are you in favour of maintaining the Spitzenkandidaten process for the Presidency of the European Commission?
I think it is a good step in the right direction. Obviously, it is an intermediary step but that shouldn’t be dismissed too easily.
[Volt defends the idea of a federal Europe with a European government, led by a Prime Minister elected by Parliament and a President elected by European citizens, editor's note]
We need to see what the options are at the end. But yes, personally, I would prefer that the Spitzenkandidaten process be respected.
Volt advocates the creation of real European parties. Will such parties ever replace the coalitions of national parties that currently form the European Parliament?
We have de facto created a European party.
We are the first to do so. People identify with parties and then they identify with politics at European level. The point is that the interlinkages between the different Member States are extremely strong. People feel that the heads of state or government of other European countries have an influence on their lives without being able to do anything about it because they cannot vote for them.
We need to somehow fix these democratic problems. In our opinion, every voter should be able to vote for anyone who runs for the European elections and the Parliament should elect someone, like a Prime Minister, who can deal with issues that are European.
What is the next step for Volt?
We will now focus on a large number of upcoming local elections. That is one side. On the other side, we will also strengthen the character of the movement, which means that we will mobilize at the local or regional level around the issues that the local team will identify as key, whatever they are. This can range from old age poverty to waste management.
One of our strong identity points is that we are community organisers in the sense that we give people a room to identify issues of their community, to address them and to build pressure to actually improve them.
It is one of the core pillars of our movement. On the one side, we are a political movement because we want to go into politics and change the way politics is done, but we also want to change politics by putting pressure on current politicians.