Volt Europa

A real pan-European political party? A single program, an individual membership, one financing and one headquarters?

One might assume parties like that would make European Parliament (henceforth EP) elections simpler and voter-friendly. Others might see how this might help democratize the elections and their outcome. And finally, a group of people considered all these factors and created Volt Europa. In Slovakia, the movement has unfortunately not yet received attention, however in France, it is even featured on national television.

Volt Europa is running for EP seats this year. We cannot expect such a young movement to succeed greatly though, as it is not yet known all-around Europe. In my opinion, we might hear more about them in the next elections in five or ten years from now, depending on their own activity. Why we ought to expect the movement becoming a key player in the upcoming elections? Their program introduces real change, the change of how politics is conducted in the European Union. Paradoxically, they focus on the same European Union problems as the euro-sceptics – the so-called democratic deficit.

The aim of Volt Europa for this election is to introduce the very idea of a pan-European party. Hence the opposite of what is common in Europe nowadays, the candidacy of say on average five parties in each of the 28 member states. Given that each party represents a program suited for their own, local voters, as much as 140 conflicting groups of MPs might be represented in the EP. This fragmentation is also the reason why many voters assume that the number of MPs per small member state will not have much power to influence the Union or EP.

This post does not necessarily claim one way is better than the other, the main goal is to point out that there are two ways.