Volt Cyprus (, ) is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

and the Cyprus branch 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 Eurofederalist pan-European political party and movement, which advocates for greater European cooperation across Europe.

History

Volt became active in Cyprus with a close cooperation with the movement New Wave - The Other Cyprus with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on 4 November 2021. In it, the movements agreed to cooperate more closely and merge after the 2023 presidential election and New Wave - The Other Cyprus renamed itself into ''Neo Kyma , , Volt Cyprus - The Other Cyprus''. With their candidate

Constantinos Christofides Konstantinos or Constantinos (Κωνσταντίνος, ''Konstantínos'') is a Greek male given name. * Konstantinos (born 1972), occultist * Konstantinos "Kosta" Barbarouses (born 1990), New Zealand footballer * Konstantinos Chalkias (born ...

they received 1.6% of the vote in the first round of the election. On 26 October 2023, Volt, New Wave and the Famagusta for Cyprus movement announced their merger and the formation of Volt Cyprus as a party. On 27 November, Member of Parliament Alexandra Attalides, of the

Ecologists This is a list of notable ecologists. A-D * John Aber (United States) * Aziz Ab'Saber (Brazil) * Charles Christopher Adams (United States) * Warder Clyde Allee (United States) * Herbert G. Andrewartha (Australia) * Sarah Martha Baker ( ...

at the time, announced that she would become a member of Volt. On 3 December, the party adopted its statutes at its founding party conference and elected Alexandra Attalides and Charilaos Velaris as chairpersons. Hulusi Kilim, a

Turkish Cypriot Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( or ; ) are so called ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots are mainly Sunni Muslims. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,000 Turkish settlers were given land onc ...

, was elected Secretary General, making him the first Turkish Cypriot politician to hold the highest office in a party that is active in the

Republic of Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the third lar ...

and Volt the only party that currently unites both the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities under one roof.

Policies

As part of the pan-European movement

, the party aims to solve current challenges and issues such as

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

, migration and

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

through closer European cooperation.

Cyprus conflict

Volt is in favour of a united Cyprus. To resolve the

Cyprus conflict The Cyprus problem, also known as the Cyprus conflict, Cyprus issue, Cyprus dispute, or Cyprus question, is an ongoing dispute between the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot community in the north of the island of Cyprus, where troops of t ...

, the party is in favour of reopening communication channels between the different parts of the country in order to close the communication gap created by closed checkpoints. To this end, it proposes, among other things, to abolish obstacles such as double insurance for cars and charges for telephone calls between the different parts of the country. Intra-Cypriot trade is to be strengthened in order to create mutual dependencies. The ceasefire regime should be strengthened through a peace agreement and common Cypriot interests should be placed more at the center.

European policy

The party aims to establish a federal

united Europe European integration is the process of political, legal, social, regional integration, regional and economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe, or nearby. European integration has primarily but not exclusively come about throu ...

with a common

European army A European army is a hypothetical army of the European Union that would supersede the Common Security and Defence Policy and would go beyond the proposed European Defence Union. Since no such unified army is currently established, defence is a ...

, a European government with a European prime minister, and a European ministry of finance and economy to better respond to global challenges.

Organisation

The party is led by a dual leadership consisting of a man and a woman.

Election

European Parliament 2024

Volt's programme for the

European elections Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Until 2019, 751 ...

was adopted on 27 November at the Volt Europa General Assembly in Paris and applies equally to Volt throughout Europe. On 25 February, the party elected its 6 candidates. The leading candidates are Andromache Sophocleous and Hulusi Kilim. The list also includes the investigative journalist

Makarios Drousiotis Makarios Drousiotis (Greek: Μακάριος Δρουσιώτης aˈka.ri.os ðru.siˈo.tis born 10 January 1959) is a Greek Cypriot investigative journalist, author, and politician, known for his research and publications on the modern history ...

Election results

European Parliament

References

External links

Official website
{{Political parties in Cyprus, state=collapsed Political parties established in 2023 Political parties in Cyprus

2023 establishments in Cyprus