The Quiet Rise of Volt
Sam Crooks
On 29th March 2017, the fateful day on which the United Kingdom officially began its negotiations with the European Union to leave the bloc, three young people called Damian Boeselager, Andrea Venzon and Colombe Cahen-Salvador were preoccupied not merely with spectating from the sidelines as Brexit continued to unfold, but with pioneering a radical solution for strengthening the existing bonds between the remaining member states. The German, Italian and French nationals came up with Volt, and its foundation on this auspicious day in EU history was intended to be the first step towards effecting a major shift in how young people across the EU approached European politics.
The distinguishing feature of Volt which, in its founders’ eyes, would make this possible was its pan-European character. Although legally consisting of national entities in each EU member state (and the United Kingdom), Volt has consistently viewed and presented itself as one political movement reaching from Lisbon to Helsinki and from Stockholm to Athens with a shared political agenda for Europe. The inclusion of the word “legally” in the previous sentence is deliberate and alludes to the second core element of this pan-European movement. This is that while Volt is divided into national sections in order to be able to campaign as a political party within each member state, for those involved in the movement itself the more important subdivisions are cities across the EU as a collective whole. The outcome of this approach in practice is that Volt groups based in individual cities are given a higher degree of autonomy and influence as they engage with their communities than would be the case in established political parties which focus more on the national level. Focusing simultaneously on a European and city level is therefore the key to Volt’s commitment to a genuinely pan-European approach, as it removes national barriers between its adherents in different EU member states and brings local communities together at a European level.
Image: https://www.volteuropa.org/
In order to gain a better understanding of the interplay between these two crucial elements of the Volt movement, we must first direct our eyes to the European level. The programme advocated by Volt is intended to overcome what it refers to as the “5+1 Challenges”. The five challenges the movement sets itself are the “Smart state” (intelligenter Staat) prioritizing digitalization and education, economic renewal (wirtschaftliche Erneuerung), social equality (soziale Gleichberechtigung), global balance of responsibility (globaler Ausgleich) for confronting issues such as climate change, and politically active citizenship (politisch active Bürgerschaft). The +1 challenge is that of EU reform, and the reason that this challenge is presented separately is to emphasise its role as the necessary addition and enhancement to the other five. The spirit of this +1 desire for EU reform is motivated not by skepticism of the current state of affairs in the EU institutions, but by the will to make them more democratic and accountable through, for example, awarding the elected members of the European Parliament the power to directly elect the European Commission. Currently, the President of the Commission is proposed by the European Council and elected by the European Parliament before the Council of the European Union (different to the European Council) uses suggestions by member-state governments to propose the other commissioners, who after election by the European Parliament are appointed by the European Council – the author is perhaps beginning to see why some think this system is in need of streamlining! In calling for reform, Volt hopes to transform a common Eurosceptic criticism of the Brussels system - that it is untransparent and not democratically accountable to citizens - into a catalyst for pro-European political change by giving elected representatives much more say in how the bloc is governed. This pro-European reformist stance also aligns with the movement’s emphasis on local communities and citizens, whose interests under these reforms would, according to Volt, be better served by representatives of their regions and cities than national-level officials planted in leading roles.
Image: https://www.pressclub.be/event/press-conference-volt-europa-a-grassroots-movement-for-a-new-europe/
There are small but nevertheless significant signs that a growing number of voters in EU member states is convinced that this pan-European reformist message is the best solution to their political, economic and social problems. In the European elections of 2019, Boeselager became the first member of the movement to be elected to the European Parliament after leading the electoral list for Volt Europa in Germany, which won 0.7% of all German votes cast. Earlier this year, in the Dutch general election, Volt won the movement’s best result in any election to date, winning three seats in the Dutch parliament with 2.42% of all votes cast. The extent to which Volt can gain national-level representation in other EU member states remains, however, to be seen, and will depend not only on the appeal of its agenda to voters but also on varying national election procedures. In the German federal election this September, parties will have to reach the threshold of five percent of all votes cast in order to gain representation in the Bundestag, a threshold which will likely be beyond Volt as voters continue to be attracted to mainstream established parties. The small vote-shares gained by its candidates also present the movement with the problem of how to effectively exploit the platform provided to it by only a small number of representatives for the purposes of advocating its agenda and persuading voters to switch allegiance from mainstream parties.
Damian Boeselager
Image: https://www.volteuropa.org/
Volt is also making inroads at city-level, particularly in university cities. The branch in Bonn, for example, has found resonance among students at the university, a development attested to by the student parliament elections at the university in early 2021. At many German universities, including the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, student parliaments elected by the student community exercise considerable influence in everyday university affairs, and the parliament receives a large proportion of the €300-plus semester fee paid by each student. In the Bonn elections, students campaign as members of political groups corresponding to those present at federal level in order to gain as many of the sixty available seats as possible, and the campaigning for these elections has provided Volt with the opportunity to promote itself among students, gaining three seats in the 2021 election, and collaborating with the Greens and Social Democrats to advance its agenda both within the university and in the wider community of Bonn. The experiences of two current student members of Volt in Bonn serve to explain the growing interest in the movement among young voters. Antonia, one of the current Volt representatives in the student parliament, has a long-standing interest in European politics and has previously interned in the European Parliament, but her desire for greater emphasis on green and social issues at a European level led her towards Volt as a movement which identifies these issues as key challenges to be overcome in Europe. By contrast, Livia, a volunteer for the movement at the university, was attracted to Volt because of her frustration with mainstream political parties and their perceived failure to provide solutions to problems affecting Germans and other Europeans. Although a passion for Europe and for common solutions to shared issues undeniably is a motivating factor for many students who support it, it is this frustration at the perceived inaction of established parties exhibited in both examples above which could become the main vehicle through which Volt can increase its appeal among younger voters who feel unrepresented by other parties. Volt is thus dependent on acquiring a mass appeal and establishing itself as a viable alternative to established parties.
It can therefore be said that due to its unique presentation of itself as a pan-European movement concerned with giving local communities greater say at European level and its exploitation of disillusionment with established political parties in several European Union member states, Volt has the potential to become a political game-changer in a reformed European Union. To attain this status, however, it will have to considerably increase its electoral appeal in many different states and localities while simultaneously capitalising on frustration at other parties even as they may reform their own programmes and regain voter confidence. Faced with a balancing-act which would present significant challenges even to established parties, only time will tell if Volt can sustain its current momentum and grow as a movement.