Volt Austria (short name: Volt; ) is a social liberal political party in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and the Austrian chapter of

Volt Europa Volt Europa (known mononymously as Volt) is a transnational pro-European and Federalisation of the European Union, federalist European political alliances, European political movement. It operates as a Pan-European identity, pan-European umbrell ...

a progressive and Eurofederalist pan-European political party and movement.

Policies

Volt advocates a common European approach to challenges such as the climate crisis, migration, digitalisation and security. In its programme, the party advocates strengthening the EU and the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

, achieving

climate neutrality Global net-zero emissions is reached when greenhouse gas emissions and removals due to human activities are in balance. It is often called simply net zero. ''Emissions'' can refer to all greenhouse gases or only carbon dioxide (). Reaching net ze ...

, a Europe-wide

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. List of countries by minimum wage, Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation b ...

and an EU army. The party also wants to promote citizen participation.

European policy

Volt is in favour of introducing additional EU-wide transnational lists for elections to the European Parliament, strengthening the European Parliament and replacing the unanimity principle in the European Council with a majority vote to prevent blockades.

Transport policy

The party wants to promote and expand

public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

for commuters and invest more in electromobility.

Foreign and security policy

To strengthen security, Volt wants to establish an EU army and is striving for a common European foreign policy.

History

Volt Austria has been registered as a party since October 12, 2018 with the aim of contesting the European elections 2019, but did not manage to collect the necessary 2600 declarations of support for a candidacy. According to the lead candidate Benjamin Wolf, the members then supported the election campaigns of the other Volt parties. Since then, the party has contested regional and local elections in Austria. In the 2024 European elections, the party is running with author and European activist Nini Tsiklauri and lawyer Alexander Harrer as its top duo. The required number of supporter signatures was clearly not reached. By linking a prize draw for Taylor Swift concert tickets with the submission of supporter signatures, criminal proceedings are possible.

Elections

European elections 2024

In October 2023, Volt announced its lead candidate, the author and European activist Nini Tsiklauri. Together with the lawyer Alexander Harrer, she forms the leadcandidate duo for the 2024 European elections. The joint election programme of the Volt parties was adopted at the

General Assembly in Paris in November 2023. In the run-up to the election, the party criticised the fact that the federal government did not provide

EU citizens The European Union citizenship is a legal status afforded to all nationals of member states of the European Union (EU). It was formally created with the adoption of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, at the same time as the creation of the EU. EU ...

with sufficient information about the European elections and that they had to register to vote, meaning that over 500,000 EU citizens in Austria were unable to vote in 2019. To change this, the party launched the ''voteurope.eu'' website, which provides information on registration in various languages.

Structure

Volt's unique characteristic is its transnational approach of actively campaigning for the same goals as a single party throughout Europe. As European law does not permit this in this form, the party has to take a diversion by founding national parties in each EU member state. The party is organized in local and regional teams and active in

Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg (state), Salzbur ...

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

, Vorarlbeg and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. Most members of the party were never active in a party before joining Volt.

External links

Official website

voteurope.eu/

References

{{Austrian political parties

Pro-European political parties in Austria Political parties in Austria 2018 establishments in Austria Political parties established in 2018