Youth-Oriented Gathering - European Excitement: Revealing the Story of Volt
Volt nabbed two spots in the European Parliament with only 2.5% of the votes during the European election. But who exactly is powering this political party named for the unit of electric potential?
A response to Brexit and European far-right rise
Born from the frustration over the Brexit referendum and the spreading far-right sentiment in Europe, a group of young Europeans founded a trans-European movement in response on March 29, 2017. Just a year later, on March 3, 2018, Volt was formally registered as a party in Germany.
As it describes themselves, Volt is now active in 31 nations and aims to play politics on both regional and global scales. They experienced their first victory in the 2019 European election, securing 0.7% of the votes in Germany. Founding member Damian Boeselager became the first Volt MEP in the European Parliament.
Volt's initial success story
This accomplishment prompted Volt to claim: "We transformed a delegate into over 100 mandate holders across Europe." Since then, the party has also managed to snag some local mandates, particularly in Germany's key cities.
During the recent European election, Volt campaigned to turn the EU into a federal state, wipe out EU member states' veto rights, switch to 100% renewable energy by 2035, and legalize the rescue of migrants at sea. They achieved their most significant feat yet: Striking a chord with young voters - preliminary data from Forschungsgruppe Wahlen research institute revealed they earned 9% of the votes from 16-25 year-olds.
