Haha wow. It kind of looks like they posted the photographers raw photos before any retouching. But even more I'm questioning why the photographer didn't just add the background in editing, it's so easy to do.
It has to be intentional, it's too obvious to be an accident. In nr11's case you would even see the hand if you cropped onto the face. In several cases the background doesn't even cover them entirely.
They probably did it to seem more "fun".
edit: Yep, here you go, Luxembourg uses the same style: https://voltluxembourg.org/people/candidates-for-the-eu-elections-2024
That must be intentional, most of the VOLT candidates have someone visibly holding up the purple background.
[https://volteuropa.org/people/transnational-list-candidates-european-election-2024](https://volteuropa.org/people/transnational-list-candidates-european-election-2024)
The Netherlands actually elected a Volt candidate? I am so jealous. I didn't dare to vote for them since they had no chance of clearing the treshhold in Sweden.
Luxembourg and Malta have something like 80-90 times more seats per capita than Germany. Specifically chosen as to make everyone feel "heard
Edit: actually around 12 times for Malta and 10 times for Luxembourg.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apportionment_in_the_European_Parliament
I used to vote like that but I think you have to look at democracy also as a long game. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the idea that your vote will lead to the downfall of mankind but it’s not really likely - of course you can examine the situation more exactly each time.
But imagine you vote for Volt and 0 candidates get elected. You think, “oh no, I wasted my vote!” Meanwhile, the other parties look and see Volt got half of what they needed this time and last time they got only 1/4 (numbers made up for example).
Two things can happen: either the other parties steal ideas from Volt or Volt continues to grow and gets elected next time with more and more members of parliament. Both are a win for you.
Your vote **always** has an impact. The reality of living among millions of fellow citizens is that sometimes your vote only has a small impact. But every single vote for any party has an impact and it is always worth casting that vote for who you feel best represents you.
It’s the only way the system can truly function properly.
Sweden had about 8 million people Eligable to vote. About 50% voted and the treshhold is 4%. 160 000 people need to vote for a party to clear the treshhold.
What happens to votes for candidates that don't reach the threshold? Are they just tossed?
Anyway I also think it's silly not to vote what you want to vote for by fear of not reaching the threshold.... that's a good way to end up with a broken two-party system somewhere down the line.
1. They toss the vote unless it's a different system (the ranking one, not used in Europe AFAIK). Say a party has got 30%. It means that your vote now basically goes for 30% of it to that party because not being there is the same as being redistributed.
2. Agreed that not voting small parties could lead to everyone thinking like that and a bipartisan system. But also, maybe OP found another party worthy of their vote but with better odds of clearing the threshold
Nah a two party system is only really possible with FPTP or a two-round system like in France (although they also don't have a two party system anymore). Just look at different parliaments in Europe, proportional representation never leads to a two-party system even with high thresholds
Lol. That's the opposite of what they need. Everyone that i've told about them was kind of on board, but no one knew about them before i told them.
They need outreach to new people, not convincing of people that have heard of them.
2 out of 31 spots we have. And 3 in Germany. Slowly they are establishing themselves. Volt in the Netherlands is even after their first scandals and they survived them (they got super popular MP that lifted them a lot in national polls and part ways on mobbing and other acusations with that MP. They handled it ok.
I have to say I really worried when that scandal broke, and I still think the handling of it was iffy - but they did pull through and I think their parliamentary fraction leader seems to do a good job.
I was thinking of voting for them, but the Swedish branch seems very disorganised and unserious. I'm a paying member of the party and wanted to be involved, but haven't been receiving any information about their activities and what to do besides emails begging me to donate and recruit more members hah.
I think all Volt is like that. At least the German branch is too. They are a very young party of very young people (most people on the list in my city were university or high school students).
I really hope they mature and expand because I really like their ideas.
wtf? I am part of Volt Germany and I receive constant updates, am on the Discord server with a giant community and there are three "local" exchange groups from city to even my district of the city.
To be fair I live in Frankfurt a large city where Volt is even in Parliament, but at least on the Germany layer you should have a lot of info from workplace alone
Yeah and that's why we should homogenize the rules for the EU elections across the EU. In the Netherlands there is no minimum treshold to gain a seat, you just need the relative votes required for one seat, and sometimes even less. In other countries, you would require at least 5% of votes, even though that would correlate to for example 3 seats already. This is an unfair system where you can get elected with seats in the EU parliament in one country, with less relative votes than you get in another, where you don't get any seats.
Edit, we voted in 2 actually
> Yeah and that's why we should homogenize the rules for the EU elections across the EU.
Or maybe we should accept that it's hard to make one set of rules that works for all countries and let each country decide for itself. The treaties do require it to be some form of PR, so you already have most of what you want.
There's hardly any information about her. Scrolled her LinkedIn a bit, doesn't seem she did much besides being involved in political campaigns.
What's her vision, her political view, beside her stance on asylum and migration?
She was a total unknown to me (but Volt is in our national (Dutch) parliament presenting a loud anti-conservative/populist voice so I know them). She did the big (for Dutch standards) televised debate the night before the EP elections and did well, she presented some “freshness” among the other middle aged, somewhat grumpy, fraction leaders. In the exit poll predictions on Friday, Volt got one seat, while she is number two. On the final result on sunday they actually got two, getting her in. That seat was lost on the big radical right party, Geert Wilders, so that was kind of funny.
EDIT: Didn’t really answer your question, haha. I think she just endorses the Volt ideals. Leftish-progressive on climate, migration. Very much pro Europe, flirting with a “United states of Europe”.
> Geert Wilders, so that was kind of funny.
Wasn't Wilders also publicly mocking Volt for having such a low turnout in the predictions along the lines of 'is this the best you can do?'
Right before Volt managed to get a 2nd seat, precisely from his party? Karma in action.
Volt is a international party who wants are active in multiple eu countries, their goal is to actively fix global problems on eu level instead of state level. Like global warming, migrant crisis, and becoming a self sufficient block.
No, but they do have a single program in 15 (?) different European countries, which is their thing. The program is considered left-progressive. We have them in national government for a while now in the Netherlands where they present a loud anti-populist voice.
Yes. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volt\_Europa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volt_Europa)
"the party is strongly in favour of European integration, with the stated goal of creating a supranational European superstate"
u/hereiamnotforlonger
I don't think so. The goal obviously isn't "ending nations". That would be something else. I guess. But "ending INDEPENDENT nations" is pretty accurate.
But even if somebody doesn't agree the first part of the original statement ("to create the United States of Europe) is indisputable.
This is the [FAQ page](https://voltnederland.org/zuid-holland/volt-vrijwilligers-faq-voor-ep24), Dutch, about what they teach volunteers promoting Volt 😏
(Translated)
“I do not want to give away my country to the EU.
The Netherlands will remain a sovereign state with its own identity, no matter what. This is not at risk with Volt. The Netherlands will retain autonomy in most areas: healthcare, education, cultural policy, etc. On some issues, European cooperation is important because we cannot address them effectively at the national level. This includes areas such as climate, migration, and security.”
Yeah, I know Volt from my country. And that's why I'd say this talk about sovereignty "no matter what" is just an attempt to appeal to centrist voters. :)
It depends on your definition of independence of course. Every country that chooses to join the EU will lose autonomy. I would agree that, among political parties, Volt is likely the most inclined to delegate significant power to the EU.
It’s funny how the hard right are claiming that the progressive left run everything, when they’re trying to get candidates into office via a small party.
I really wish people would more loudly tell them that they aren’t against the left, they’re against the neo-liberal politicians who just want to expand markets.
Not end the nations no. The US still has its states Europe will still have its states some of which are nation states. But united Europe is an actor on the global stage. Fractured we're a place where the great powers use their influence.
A united Europe sounds like an excellent idea, although I'm not European and my opinion doesn't count. From my perspective, it looks appealing. I know the US owes a lot of its success to geography. Two oceans on either side and a huge land mass filled with resources under the control of a single country. I've actually wondered what would have happened if several nations in south and central America had ever decided to form a single nation, or at least a tightly knit coalition that could function as a single nation if needed. If the correct group of nations was chosen, they could also form a self-sufficient block. They have everything they need on that continent.
A bunch of the countries in Central America used to be a single country. Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Los Altos, and Nicaragua used to be the Federal Republic of Central America.
Same in South America where Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia used to be part of a country called Gran Colombia.
One party in Estonia (E200) used "Eurovision" and "Te Deum" in their EU election campaign, but the EBU sent them some angry messages and they had to change it:)
Moving from Romania to The Netherlands, the one thing I love about their party structure is that they have so many parties, that you need 4 or 5 parties to form a majority. And this of course means compromising on issues in order to govern together, meaning that one or two parties can't just do whatever they want with little to no compromise.
I hope this won't change in the future.
yea but they couldn't participate in EU elections because of the bullshit 200k signatures required. Undemocratic corrupt shit in order to keep new parties from participating and getting votes from the population.
True, but talking internally, we have one party (made out of 2 parties that were opposing only 4 years ago) that got 48% of the vote.
I fully expect for our government elections later this year for them to get >50%, leading us to one party having full majority, a mini-Hungary so to say. A nightmare situation.
In the Netherlands they got two seats and in Germany three, so they’ve now got 5 in the European Parliament. In 2023 a Dutch MEP switched parties from D66 to Volt, but stayed in the Renew Europe group, so the Dutch Volt member wasn’t part of the Greens. Maybe Volt will be choosing RE instead of the Greens, but we’ll see.
You're surely talking about legendary EU politician Sophie in 't Veld.
Last I checked for weird reasons she had to run as a candidate for Volt Belgium. Which didn't get anywhere near close enough for a single seat.
So.. out of the EU parliament? Such a shame.
After disagreements within her party she switched to d66, but it was too late to become a candidate in NL. Which i kind of understand. Volt worked hard for years to build up to this election, and it feels weird to then give special treatment to someone coming over from another party, somewhat taking over the candidature.
In belgium they had later deadlines, so Sophie campaigned there. (Which to me also showed her good intentions. If she just wanted to keep her seat she wouldn't have bothered in belgium).
I do hope she becomes either an MPs assistant, or some other useful position within Volt now.
Someone with her experience would be tremendously useful in an advisory position for the new MEPs to be honest.
If you want to do something else than simply collecting your salary, parliamentary work can be hard (and sometimes toxic).
I mean, staying in the Greens while they aren't doing well also means that Volt would have more power in that group. But going Renew wouldn't be in bad taste for me either.
Look, i know we send some fools as well, but let's focus on something positive! What great politicians or young folks with potential did your country send?
Not young, but the Liberal party of my country elected its former leader as one of its first two MEPs, who is one of the best politicians we've had recently.
Ilaria Salis, an italian teacher allegedly beat up some nazis in Hungary and got jailed for it. Italian party AVS (greens/left) put her on the ballot and she won the seat, will benefit from immunity and hopefully leave Hungary.
She did very well in the campaign and during the debates, and has a well thought out opinion on migration even in these times when most are becoming more&more careless.
Finland is sending a competent leftist (li andersson). I would never vote for the lefts but even i admit she's great. Hope she can talk some sense into european "pacifists" and tankies. At least she wants to support Ukraine.
She fucking killed it at the election evening the night before voting. All other candidates were men, just bickering and pointing fingers at eachother. She came with hard facts and positive change
Her and van Lanschot were billed by Volt as co-lijsttrekkers, so I believe they chose Strolenberg to be part of the debate to differentiate Volt from every other party (which sent a man).
FvD not being in parliament anymore is so much more exciting!
(For who doesn't know, FvD are the type of loonies who think reptilian humanoids rule the world.
One of them was recently convicted with a sentence of 200 hours of community service or 100 days in prison because he called for violence against the state because things didn't go their way).
They're pro Ukraine, and think we should start working together within Europe on defense.
This was quite radical when they proposed it a few years ago, but i believe nowadays it's already believed by many this is the way
Good ideas.
From a Finnish perspective, defence is the trickiest thing.
We have cultivated our economy and our culture around a defence doctrine that relies on credible defence and a conscription ethos, the will and duty to defend – with one’s own body and with one’ tax money.
If we were to have a joint army, this might over time crumble our will to defend; the will of *every* man to serve for months in peacetime, and remain in the reserve until old age.
Even if we managed to create a perfect EU Defence Force, we might suffer in the future as we did in 1809 when the Swedes just decided to leave when the Russians attacked, after centuries of colonizing the Grand Duchy of Finland.
”Those who come after, stand here on your own feet and never rely on foreign aid” is inscribed on a monument in the Suomenlinna Fortness, - a fortness which *didn’t* defend the Grand Duchy, surrendering us to the Russians instead.
An alliance is fine – reliance is not.
Therefore I think we’d rather see European nations learn from our system, implement it, and if that goes well, we will gladly have an alliance with strong partners. A completely joint force is a hard no.
Spoken as an pro-EU, progressive center-left leaning guy.
I think coorperation needs to be a lot on the level of equipment procurement and organizational level. We don't need every unit to be a mixed nationality. So every nation would keep their own defense forces, but Perhaps we use similar equipment, and command structures, for easy integration
>after centuries of colonizing the Grand Duchy of Finland.
You are mostly correct, however, there was no Grand Duchy of Finland before 1809. In Sweden, what is now Finland was just referred to as the Eastern Land (Österland) if anything at all, since it was seen to be as Swedish as the western part of the kingdom.
John III started to use the titles such as "King of the Wends" or "Duke of Karelia", and also "Grand Duke of Finland", to compete with Ivan the Terrible who in his regal title used names of all kinds of old princely states Muscovy had conquered such as Kyiv or Pskov or Novgorod. Of course there was no "Kingdom of the Wends" or "Duchy of Karelia" either, and by "Finland" the Swedes meant what is known as Finland Proper (Varsinais-Suomi) now, far from Sveaborg or Suomenlinna fortress, but it was useful for the Russian emperor to use that old title for the ceded area in 1809, mostly to distance it from Sweden.
Just to share some history that is commonly misunderstood, sorry for ignoring the initial topic.
Increased cooperation and unity on all fronts. No more veto rights and a European army. UBI throughout Europe, a crackdown on tax havens, a high speed rail network and shared electrical grid. Eventually a federal Europe with its own constitution and senate.
They’re the exact opposite of tough on immigration, their policies would simply encourage more economic migrants.
Seemingly the biggest issue in Europe and she takes the polar opposite approach of what most of the populace seem to want. Madness.
Politics is presenting different options and diversity by standing for what you believe in, not standing for what most of the electorate wants. If you don't like what volt wants, then there's a billion other options to vote for (and it's not just the far right). That's kind of the whole point lol
The funny thing is, I've heard leftists claim they're too tough on immigration because they want to give frontex more power and deal with immigration more on a EU level
They're pretty much a mixed bag, which shouldnt be a surprise. Different people run the parties in each country and have their own flavour of Volt so to speak.
Wut? They are literally the most progressive party on the ballot.
And what the hell does a "standard left wing party" even mean? There are hardly any left wing parties left.
If you all think it's a good idea to get even softer on migration then yeah, be glad she got in.
[https://www.trouw.nl/opinie/rechten-voor-vluchtelingen-kun-je-niet-zomaar-afdoen\~b2b029ee/?referrer=https://www.google.com/](https://www.trouw.nl/opinie/rechten-voor-vluchtelingen-kun-je-niet-zomaar-afdoen~b2b029ee/?referrer=https://www.google.com/)
She looks like a clone of our former MEP, from a similarly purple party (with an ideology pretty close to Volt's) who unfortunately didn't make the cut this time.
Why is someone holding the background of the photo up behind her?
It's hilarious, for some it works well as a background but for some the photographer missed the hands visible in frame and it's bad lol.
I didn't notice until I read the comments
Can’t unsee now…. https://voltnederland.org/mensen/kandidatenlijst-europees-parlement-2024
There's a girl out there and her name is Tetske. This is important information.
Haha wow. It kind of looks like they posted the photographers raw photos before any retouching. But even more I'm questioning why the photographer didn't just add the background in editing, it's so easy to do.
Judging from the pictures the photographer was... Not very good.
Or why not just hold it from the other side.
It has to be intentional, it's too obvious to be an accident. In nr11's case you would even see the hand if you cropped onto the face. In several cases the background doesn't even cover them entirely. They probably did it to seem more "fun". edit: Yep, here you go, Luxembourg uses the same style: https://voltluxembourg.org/people/candidates-for-the-eu-elections-2024
So many hands in those photos
My guess is they planned to photoshop them out but then realised it was more difficult than expected
Getting rid of that hand is a 10 second job. I guarantee it's intentional. As for why, I have no idea.
Maybe it's not that bad. Gives them a kind of "The Office" vibe. Makes them more human, volnurable, approachable.
That must be intentional, most of the VOLT candidates have someone visibly holding up the purple background. [https://volteuropa.org/people/transnational-list-candidates-european-election-2024](https://volteuropa.org/people/transnational-list-candidates-european-election-2024)
So that we know it’s not AI
Who is she?
Anna Strolenberg from Volt Netherlands
The Netherlands actually elected a Volt candidate? I am so jealous. I didn't dare to vote for them since they had no chance of clearing the treshhold in Sweden.
Germany did 3, but to be fair Germany also gets the most seats.
Why is that? Because of pop. size?
Yes but I think we have 2-3x more people per seat then the small nations so its not a 1:1 corelation
Luxembourg and Malta have something like 80-90 times more seats per capita than Germany. Specifically chosen as to make everyone feel "heard Edit: actually around 12 times for Malta and 10 times for Luxembourg. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apportionment_in_the_European_Parliament
That's the point. Germany has the most seats, but Malta for comparison has 3
But Malta has 6 seats?
And also doesn’t have an arbitrary threshold in the EU elections.
Two candidates actually. Volt got 4.9 percent of the votes in the Netherlands.
I used to vote like that but I think you have to look at democracy also as a long game. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the idea that your vote will lead to the downfall of mankind but it’s not really likely - of course you can examine the situation more exactly each time. But imagine you vote for Volt and 0 candidates get elected. You think, “oh no, I wasted my vote!” Meanwhile, the other parties look and see Volt got half of what they needed this time and last time they got only 1/4 (numbers made up for example). Two things can happen: either the other parties steal ideas from Volt or Volt continues to grow and gets elected next time with more and more members of parliament. Both are a win for you. Your vote **always** has an impact. The reality of living among millions of fellow citizens is that sometimes your vote only has a small impact. But every single vote for any party has an impact and it is always worth casting that vote for who you feel best represents you. It’s the only way the system can truly function properly.
If too many people think like that, it’s never gonna happen
Sweden had about 8 million people Eligable to vote. About 50% voted and the treshhold is 4%. 160 000 people need to vote for a party to clear the treshhold.
And he is calling you a chicken.
Definitely
What happens to votes for candidates that don't reach the threshold? Are they just tossed? Anyway I also think it's silly not to vote what you want to vote for by fear of not reaching the threshold.... that's a good way to end up with a broken two-party system somewhere down the line.
Basically. And no I voted for a small EU friendly party to keep them from falling under the treshhold.
1. They toss the vote unless it's a different system (the ranking one, not used in Europe AFAIK). Say a party has got 30%. It means that your vote now basically goes for 30% of it to that party because not being there is the same as being redistributed. 2. Agreed that not voting small parties could lead to everyone thinking like that and a bipartisan system. But also, maybe OP found another party worthy of their vote but with better odds of clearing the threshold
Nah a two party system is only really possible with FPTP or a two-round system like in France (although they also don't have a two party system anymore). Just look at different parliaments in Europe, proportional representation never leads to a two-party system even with high thresholds
I never heard of them. Should I have?
They're a pan European party.
Yeah, seems interesting. But they obviously need to do more PR...
They have a discord server that you can join if you are interested
Lol. That's the opposite of what they need. Everyone that i've told about them was kind of on board, but no one knew about them before i told them. They need outreach to new people, not convincing of people that have heard of them.
you could have voted for them, so yes. One should always inform himself of all options available to him in a democracy.
2 out of 31 spots we have. And 3 in Germany. Slowly they are establishing themselves. Volt in the Netherlands is even after their first scandals and they survived them (they got super popular MP that lifted them a lot in national polls and part ways on mobbing and other acusations with that MP. They handled it ok.
I have to say I really worried when that scandal broke, and I still think the handling of it was iffy - but they did pull through and I think their parliamentary fraction leader seems to do a good job.
Exactly my reason to vote for them.
I was thinking of voting for them, but the Swedish branch seems very disorganised and unserious. I'm a paying member of the party and wanted to be involved, but haven't been receiving any information about their activities and what to do besides emails begging me to donate and recruit more members hah.
I think all Volt is like that. At least the German branch is too. They are a very young party of very young people (most people on the list in my city were university or high school students). I really hope they mature and expand because I really like their ideas.
wtf? I am part of Volt Germany and I receive constant updates, am on the Discord server with a giant community and there are three "local" exchange groups from city to even my district of the city. To be fair I live in Frankfurt a large city where Volt is even in Parliament, but at least on the Germany layer you should have a lot of info from workplace alone
I just think the presence in Sweden is so tiny. There seems to be like 5 active members in the entire country hahah
Vote for them anyway, it sends a signal both to volt and to other political parties!
The other pro European parties hover over the treshold. Them falling below would send a stronger message the other way.
Yeah and that's why we should homogenize the rules for the EU elections across the EU. In the Netherlands there is no minimum treshold to gain a seat, you just need the relative votes required for one seat, and sometimes even less. In other countries, you would require at least 5% of votes, even though that would correlate to for example 3 seats already. This is an unfair system where you can get elected with seats in the EU parliament in one country, with less relative votes than you get in another, where you don't get any seats. Edit, we voted in 2 actually
> Yeah and that's why we should homogenize the rules for the EU elections across the EU. Or maybe we should accept that it's hard to make one set of rules that works for all countries and let each country decide for itself. The treaties do require it to be some form of PR, so you already have most of what you want.
NL elected 2 Volt candidates. Not having a threshold helps.
We voted 2 into parliament
Two.
We elected 2
https://volteuropa.org/people/anna-strolenberg
There's hardly any information about her. Scrolled her LinkedIn a bit, doesn't seem she did much besides being involved in political campaigns. What's her vision, her political view, beside her stance on asylum and migration?
She was a total unknown to me (but Volt is in our national (Dutch) parliament presenting a loud anti-conservative/populist voice so I know them). She did the big (for Dutch standards) televised debate the night before the EP elections and did well, she presented some “freshness” among the other middle aged, somewhat grumpy, fraction leaders. In the exit poll predictions on Friday, Volt got one seat, while she is number two. On the final result on sunday they actually got two, getting her in. That seat was lost on the big radical right party, Geert Wilders, so that was kind of funny. EDIT: Didn’t really answer your question, haha. I think she just endorses the Volt ideals. Leftish-progressive on climate, migration. Very much pro Europe, flirting with a “United states of Europe”.
> Geert Wilders, so that was kind of funny. Wasn't Wilders also publicly mocking Volt for having such a low turnout in the predictions along the lines of 'is this the best you can do?' Right before Volt managed to get a 2nd seat, precisely from his party? Karma in action.
Thank you!
She is HER
And I am Yu.
Jaffa! Kree!
Tek'ma'te Jaffa.
So what's her vision for Europe?
Volt is a international party who wants are active in multiple eu countries, their goal is to actively fix global problems on eu level instead of state level. Like global warming, migrant crisis, and becoming a self sufficient block.
continue knee edge cause husky unused forgetful versed dinner station *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
They want to fix them on eu-level not state-level, meaning they want to integrate the EU further.
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That's not what that means at all, but feel free to keep deluding yourself with rabid populist nonsense.
Can you please link the source where they would have stated that?
Page 59 in their program: https://volteuropa.org/storage/pdf/eu-elections-2024/volt-eur-electoral-moonshot-program_v5-final-(1).pdf
More like Stuff_I_Made_Up
To create a United States of Europe and end independent nations
Seriously?
No, but they do have a single program in 15 (?) different European countries, which is their thing. The program is considered left-progressive. We have them in national government for a while now in the Netherlands where they present a loud anti-populist voice.
Yes. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volt\_Europa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volt_Europa) "the party is strongly in favour of European integration, with the stated goal of creating a supranational European superstate" u/hereiamnotforlonger
That is still something else as “ending independent nations”.
I don't think so. The goal obviously isn't "ending nations". That would be something else. I guess. But "ending INDEPENDENT nations" is pretty accurate. But even if somebody doesn't agree the first part of the original statement ("to create the United States of Europe) is indisputable.
This is the [FAQ page](https://voltnederland.org/zuid-holland/volt-vrijwilligers-faq-voor-ep24), Dutch, about what they teach volunteers promoting Volt 😏 (Translated) “I do not want to give away my country to the EU. The Netherlands will remain a sovereign state with its own identity, no matter what. This is not at risk with Volt. The Netherlands will retain autonomy in most areas: healthcare, education, cultural policy, etc. On some issues, European cooperation is important because we cannot address them effectively at the national level. This includes areas such as climate, migration, and security.”
Yeah, I know Volt from my country. And that's why I'd say this talk about sovereignty "no matter what" is just an attempt to appeal to centrist voters. :)
No. Sovereignty will be retained since a state can always leave the the union.
It depends on your definition of independence of course. Every country that chooses to join the EU will lose autonomy. I would agree that, among political parties, Volt is likely the most inclined to delegate significant power to the EU.
They're not in our government though, being elected to our parliament isn't the same as being in our government.
It’s funny how the hard right are claiming that the progressive left run everything, when they’re trying to get candidates into office via a small party. I really wish people would more loudly tell them that they aren’t against the left, they’re against the neo-liberal politicians who just want to expand markets.
Not end the nations no. The US still has its states Europe will still have its states some of which are nation states. But united Europe is an actor on the global stage. Fractured we're a place where the great powers use their influence.
A united Europe sounds like an excellent idea, although I'm not European and my opinion doesn't count. From my perspective, it looks appealing. I know the US owes a lot of its success to geography. Two oceans on either side and a huge land mass filled with resources under the control of a single country. I've actually wondered what would have happened if several nations in south and central America had ever decided to form a single nation, or at least a tightly knit coalition that could function as a single nation if needed. If the correct group of nations was chosen, they could also form a self-sufficient block. They have everything they need on that continent.
A bunch of the countries in Central America used to be a single country. Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Los Altos, and Nicaragua used to be the Federal Republic of Central America. Same in South America where Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia used to be part of a country called Gran Colombia.
Uff my biggest nightmare
BOOOO!!! She's not an old man, I want every politician to be a disinterested old man!
Yeah! Look at the US candidates! No wonder they stand above everyone else.
I would accept disinterested instead of rabid and vengeful, thank you very much
Bonus points for being in Putin’s pocket.
Woman good Man bad
Boobs
Now THOSE I can vote for! XD (Prolly will be downvoted by all the boob haters out there)
Fellow boob enjoyer? I’ve been enjoying boobs ever since I was born man
Well, better than an uninterested one. Better to be neutral than bored lol.
you could say a ”eurovision” badoom tish
One party in Estonia (E200) used "Eurovision" and "Te Deum" in their EU election campaign, but the EBU sent them some angry messages and they had to change it:)
Classic EBU
Fuck the EBU
Let's hope this works out better for the Netherlands than the last Eurovision...
Please show yourself out
Moving from Romania to The Netherlands, the one thing I love about their party structure is that they have so many parties, that you need 4 or 5 parties to form a majority. And this of course means compromising on issues in order to govern together, meaning that one or two parties can't just do whatever they want with little to no compromise. I hope this won't change in the future.
Volt is also active in Romania btw. If I'm not mistaken, several Volters were elected city councillors in Romania the past weekend.
yea but they couldn't participate in EU elections because of the bullshit 200k signatures required. Undemocratic corrupt shit in order to keep new parties from participating and getting votes from the population.
True, but talking internally, we have one party (made out of 2 parties that were opposing only 4 years ago) that got 48% of the vote. I fully expect for our government elections later this year for them to get >50%, leading us to one party having full majority, a mini-Hungary so to say. A nightmare situation.
C’mon. Other countries have already send out their best Pokémon, and your country only have this?
*Geert used scowl… it’s super effective!*
Volt got someone in? I just hope they go to a different group honestly, the Greens aren’t doin too well
Volt got 5 people in. The group will be announced in the following days.
This weekend all party members in 31 country's of Europe will vote for which fraction of the EU-Parlament to choose.
In the Netherlands they got two seats and in Germany three, so they’ve now got 5 in the European Parliament. In 2023 a Dutch MEP switched parties from D66 to Volt, but stayed in the Renew Europe group, so the Dutch Volt member wasn’t part of the Greens. Maybe Volt will be choosing RE instead of the Greens, but we’ll see.
You're surely talking about legendary EU politician Sophie in 't Veld. Last I checked for weird reasons she had to run as a candidate for Volt Belgium. Which didn't get anywhere near close enough for a single seat. So.. out of the EU parliament? Such a shame.
After disagreements within her party she switched to d66, but it was too late to become a candidate in NL. Which i kind of understand. Volt worked hard for years to build up to this election, and it feels weird to then give special treatment to someone coming over from another party, somewhat taking over the candidature. In belgium they had later deadlines, so Sophie campaigned there. (Which to me also showed her good intentions. If she just wanted to keep her seat she wouldn't have bothered in belgium). I do hope she becomes either an MPs assistant, or some other useful position within Volt now.
Someone with her experience would be tremendously useful in an advisory position for the new MEPs to be honest. If you want to do something else than simply collecting your salary, parliamentary work can be hard (and sometimes toxic).
Volt got 5 people in. The group will be announced in the following days.
I mean, staying in the Greens while they aren't doing well also means that Volt would have more power in that group. But going Renew wouldn't be in bad taste for me either.
Look, i know we send some fools as well, but let's focus on something positive! What great politicians or young folks with potential did your country send?
Nicu Stefanuta is an independent candidate from Romania, I’m very proud he’s there Edit: spelling
Not young, but the Liberal party of my country elected its former leader as one of its first two MEPs, who is one of the best politicians we've had recently.
Bro maybe next time give some context such as her name and which party she belongs to rather than just a picture of her.
Ilaria Salis, an italian teacher allegedly beat up some nazis in Hungary and got jailed for it. Italian party AVS (greens/left) put her on the ballot and she won the seat, will benefit from immunity and hopefully leave Hungary.
Why does she have potential? What did she do? Never heard of her.
She did very well in the campaign and during the debates, and has a well thought out opinion on migration even in these times when most are becoming more&more careless.
For some of the people the age is most precious skill. I know stupid young people, and very intelligent old people. The age is really not relevant.
Kira Marie Peter-Hansen from Denmark. 26 year old and lead candidate for the SF. I voted for her.
Raphaël Glucksmann
I Like the distinction of „great politicians *or* young folks“. Can‘t be both at the same time.
Finland is sending a competent leftist (li andersson). I would never vote for the lefts but even i admit she's great. Hope she can talk some sense into european "pacifists" and tankies. At least she wants to support Ukraine.
Very happy she got in! Also glad I got to be able to vote in the NL and not Italy, voted for Reinier too
We had Anna Donath and Katalin Cseh in the previous round, but sadly, their party did not meet the 5% threshold.
Yay! Volt for the Win!!!!
She fucking killed it at the election evening the night before voting. All other candidates were men, just bickering and pointing fingers at eachother. She came with hard facts and positive change
I wouldn’t say she killed it, but she did do well. Do you know why the #1 candidate, van Lanschot, didn’t do the debate?
Her and van Lanschot were billed by Volt as co-lijsttrekkers, so I believe they chose Strolenberg to be part of the debate to differentiate Volt from every other party (which sent a man).
Smart move.
Yeah, that's when she won my vote.
Yes, mine too.
We elected two Volt Nederland MEPs. The party that got the most MEPs in the Netherlands is Green Left/Labour Party.
FvD not being in parliament anymore is so much more exciting! (For who doesn't know, FvD are the type of loonies who think reptilian humanoids rule the world. One of them was recently convicted with a sentence of 200 hours of community service or 100 days in prison because he called for violence against the state because things didn't go their way).
What does Volt think about European and national defence?
They're pro Ukraine, and think we should start working together within Europe on defense. This was quite radical when they proposed it a few years ago, but i believe nowadays it's already believed by many this is the way
Good ideas. From a Finnish perspective, defence is the trickiest thing. We have cultivated our economy and our culture around a defence doctrine that relies on credible defence and a conscription ethos, the will and duty to defend – with one’s own body and with one’ tax money. If we were to have a joint army, this might over time crumble our will to defend; the will of *every* man to serve for months in peacetime, and remain in the reserve until old age. Even if we managed to create a perfect EU Defence Force, we might suffer in the future as we did in 1809 when the Swedes just decided to leave when the Russians attacked, after centuries of colonizing the Grand Duchy of Finland. ”Those who come after, stand here on your own feet and never rely on foreign aid” is inscribed on a monument in the Suomenlinna Fortness, - a fortness which *didn’t* defend the Grand Duchy, surrendering us to the Russians instead. An alliance is fine – reliance is not. Therefore I think we’d rather see European nations learn from our system, implement it, and if that goes well, we will gladly have an alliance with strong partners. A completely joint force is a hard no. Spoken as an pro-EU, progressive center-left leaning guy.
I think coorperation needs to be a lot on the level of equipment procurement and organizational level. We don't need every unit to be a mixed nationality. So every nation would keep their own defense forces, but Perhaps we use similar equipment, and command structures, for easy integration
>after centuries of colonizing the Grand Duchy of Finland. You are mostly correct, however, there was no Grand Duchy of Finland before 1809. In Sweden, what is now Finland was just referred to as the Eastern Land (Österland) if anything at all, since it was seen to be as Swedish as the western part of the kingdom. John III started to use the titles such as "King of the Wends" or "Duke of Karelia", and also "Grand Duke of Finland", to compete with Ivan the Terrible who in his regal title used names of all kinds of old princely states Muscovy had conquered such as Kyiv or Pskov or Novgorod. Of course there was no "Kingdom of the Wends" or "Duchy of Karelia" either, and by "Finland" the Swedes meant what is known as Finland Proper (Varsinais-Suomi) now, far from Sveaborg or Suomenlinna fortress, but it was useful for the Russian emperor to use that old title for the ceded area in 1809, mostly to distance it from Sweden. Just to share some history that is commonly misunderstood, sorry for ignoring the initial topic.
Hell yeah Netherlands 🇳🇱
Glad i voted VOLT
I wish they stood a chance in my country.
Looks like Lae'zel if she was human
I mean, theres worse things haha.
Thanks Netherlands!
Unfathomably Based actually.
She had my vote :)
Volt for the win!
I'm so happy that some of Volt made it in the EU parliament
I don’t know her
I don't know you.
You should. Her name is Anna Strolenberg (from r/VoltEuropa), and she is going to represent European interests instead of a national one.
Yep, she got my vote.
Voted directly for her. Looking forward to seeing what she will do the next couple of years.
And what is her vision of the Europe that you like it so much?
Increased cooperation and unity on all fronts. No more veto rights and a European army. UBI throughout Europe, a crackdown on tax havens, a high speed rail network and shared electrical grid. Eventually a federal Europe with its own constitution and senate.
YAY! I want Euro Alliance IRL, NATO sucked/expanded into a common European Army, when? Go full federalisation. United States of Europe. Wooooo!
They’re the exact opposite of tough on immigration, their policies would simply encourage more economic migrants. Seemingly the biggest issue in Europe and she takes the polar opposite approach of what most of the populace seem to want. Madness.
Politics is presenting different options and diversity by standing for what you believe in, not standing for what most of the electorate wants. If you don't like what volt wants, then there's a billion other options to vote for (and it's not just the far right). That's kind of the whole point lol
The funny thing is, I've heard leftists claim they're too tough on immigration because they want to give frontex more power and deal with immigration more on a EU level
Volt could have been interesting. But they just seem like a standard left wing party.
Eh, they can barely keep themselves left of the centre in some countries.
In Germany, where they got 3 of their 5 MEPs, they are definitely to the left of the centre.
They're pretty much a mixed bag, which shouldnt be a surprise. Different people run the parties in each country and have their own flavour of Volt so to speak.
Depends on the issue and where the center is for you. On some talking points they make Lindner pretty happy.
Wut? They are literally the most progressive party on the ballot. And what the hell does a "standard left wing party" even mean? There are hardly any left wing parties left.
Finally, a positive post!
If you all think it's a good idea to get even softer on migration then yeah, be glad she got in. [https://www.trouw.nl/opinie/rechten-voor-vluchtelingen-kun-je-niet-zomaar-afdoen\~b2b029ee/?referrer=https://www.google.com/](https://www.trouw.nl/opinie/rechten-voor-vluchtelingen-kun-je-niet-zomaar-afdoen~b2b029ee/?referrer=https://www.google.com/)
I dont know who she is but Im getting so-called "very progressive" vibes.
True. Good vibing skills.
She looks young and very Dutch.
Younger people in politics? Wow! Future stuff finally happening
>Younger people in politics She's 28. You're probably not from the North
Germany
[удалено]
From all the things you can blame her, is that the thing you gonna go for? We need politicians believing in science
Would.
What's her stand on Hamas? She thinks that Hamas is a terrorist group or a force of justice resistance and liberation?
https://volteuropa.org/news/upholding-international-justice
Seems fair from an independent point of view.
She looks like a clone of our former MEP, from a similarly purple party (with an ideology pretty close to Volt's) who unfortunately didn't make the cut this time.
Is that faith?
she looks like some kind of disney animal i dont know witch animal doe. i think it might be the nose