Volt — A new European political movement

[Joshuas]

Volt is a political movement that wants to work towards a healthy, modern, united Europe. They're a great party and I'll be voting for them today in the Dutch elections. I think you guys would lik this:
 

They're very conscious. They even talk about not left or right, we want to create solutions that work. Which is in line with Leo's view on politics, so that's rather sweet.

 

Would love to hear Wether you heard of them before and what you hink, but mainly I just wanted to share them. Have a good day.

[Leo Gura]

So what you mean is, they will never get elected.

[Joshuas]

There is more to it than that. I really hope they'll win somewhere between one and 5 out 150 seats in the Dutch government. Which would actually quite a lot since they have only been around since 2018 — the Dutch Volt party, the original party got created in 2017.

But yeah, it's a small start, but still exciting news.

[Loving Radiance]

@Joshuas I thought about volunterring for them here in Germany, but felt it would be wiser to focus on my career first.

[StarStruck]

If they get one seat they should count themselves lucky. Only the educated will vote for such a party.

[DocWatts]

They seem like what is known as a Process Oriented Political Party, which is one more focused on arriving at policy positions through deliberative consensus building, with the aim of elevating Political Discourse. This is in marked contrast to traditional political parties which try to force through their own narrow policy platform through maneuvering and debate.

Probably too far ahead of the current zeitgeist to make a big impact, but it's definitely very encouraging to see.

If you're interested in the subject, I recently read two excellent books which go in to a ton of depth on Process Oriented Politics : The Listening Society, and Nordic Ideology, both by Hanzi Freinacht. If I'm remembering correctly, I believe Volt may have been one of the examples the author lists by name in the text.

 

[ItsNick]

I actually talked about Volt in a topic I recently created.

They are definitely an interesting party. But not worth my vote because:

1) They are too neo-liberal in their policies

2) They are way too small at the moment

Edited March 17, 2021 by ItsNick

[Heinrich Faust]

It's kind of the only party with a significant portion of stage yellow.

[Bodhitree]

Volt got 3 seats in the Parliament according to the adjusted exit poll, and in some cities were as high as 6.4% of the vote. They will participate in the upcoming German and Hungarian elections as well. 

[Willie]

On 3/17/2021 at 7:06 AM, Leo Gura said:

So what you mean is, they will never get elected.

If they were in the U.S., definitely not. I like their chances in some European countries, though!

[Heinrich Faust]

That's mostly due to the American winner-takes-all system. In the Netherlands it's quite easy for small parties to win a seat or two because of the proportional system: You got 2.4 %? Great, 3 of the 150 seats are yours!

In Germany, it will be much more difficult for them because most German parliaments have an election threshold. In the federal elections, parties with less than 5 % of the votes don't get any seats. However, Volt already won one of the German EP seats in 2019 and has seats in several municipal councils, mostly in cities. In the councils of Munich, Cologne, Bonn, and Münster, Volt is even part of the government coalition. Last week, they got 7 % in Darmstadt. That's 5 of the 71 seats, which is the biggest electoral success so far.

I don't know anything about Volt in Hungary and didn't find anything, either. Are you maybe talking about Bulgaria? They have some scattered seats in Bulgarian city councils and are going to join a coalition list for the national elections. So, there's a bit of a chance to get a seat there, too — which is remarkable because Bulgaria is quite stage blue.

[ItsNick]

Talking about Volt, here's a nice video about the election results:

Sadly the more conservative parties performed best

[Heinrich Faust]

11:19! VVD, D66, PvdA, GL, Volt — that would be the most progressive coalition ever.

[Elevated]

The fact that these parties can even exist and win certain elections is a really good sign. Bleeding edge or not, they still exist. Just like the Green party's views on climate change, their ideas will eventually seed into the larger parties. 

[Heinrich Faust]

And they'll naturally become stronger with the growing stage yellow electoral in green countries like the Netherlands or Germany.

Btw, let's build an Actualized.org Party! Who's in?

[Lews Therin]

My european french teacher sent me this after i asked if he knew volt.

https://mondediplo.com/outsidein/volt-technocratic-populists

I didn't get enough from that two minute video to know how the party arrives at conclusions and policies, so it seems a valid critique.

[Heinrich Faust]

Interesting article! It's a good (and by now rare) example of stage green resisting stage yellow.

Stage green values direct democracy and (green) ideology, and is triggered by stage yellow being technocratic and non-ideological.

[PurpleTree]

On 24.3.2021 at 10:08 PM, Heinrich Faust said:

 

Btw, let's build an Actualized.org Party! Who's in?

we can't even agree on things like covid and many other things though 

Edited November 20, 2021 by PurpleTree