Volt Netherlands (, usually simply called Volt) is a

social-liberal Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...

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

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. It is the Dutch branch of Volt Europa, a political movement that operates on a European level.

History

Oprichting Volt - speech Reinier van Lanschot (23 juni 2018).webm, Party foundation Wij Zijn Europa - Wij zijn Volt! - Volt Nederland - Europese_verkiezingen.webm, Campaign for the 2019 European Parliament election Volt Nederland was founded in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Nethe ...

on 23 June 2018, with

Reinier van Lanschot Reinier van Lanschot (born 7 September 1989) is a Dutch politician. In 2018, he co-founded Volt Netherlands with Laurens Dassen and has since served its chairman. He was the party's top candidate for the European Parliament in the 2019 electio ...

as its first chairman. The party owes its start and foundation partly to donations through

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance. In 2015, over was rais ...

. The

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million peopl ...

was the first election in which Volt took part. The party obtained 106,004 votes in the Netherlands, more than 100,000 votes too few for a seat. The party received most of its votes in university cities, such as

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

and

Wageningen Wageningen () is a municipality and a historic city in the central Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland. It is famous for Wageningen University, which specialises in life sciences. The municipality had a population of in , of which many ...

. Although the Dutch branch of Volt was unable to obtain a seat in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the 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 adop ...

, it is currently represented by the German branch, which won one seat. In 2021, the party participated in the

Dutch general election Elections in the Netherlands are held for five territorial levels of government: the European Union, the state, the twelve Provinces, the 21 water boards and the 344 municipalities (and the three ''public bodies'' in the Caribbean Netherland ...

. On 25 October 2020, the party adopted its candidate list, with Laurens Dassen as the top candidate. At the beginning of 2021, the Electoral Council announced that Volt would participate in all 20 electoral districts. National

opinion polling An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinion ...

typically excluded the party until six weeks before the election, when their popularity began to rise; a number of polls in the days leading up to election day showed them projected to win up to three seats. Volt ultimately won 2.4% of votes, their best national performance in any election to date, and three seats, marking their first entrance into a national legislature. The three seats of Volt were taken up by Laurens Dassen, Nilüfer Gündoğan, and Marieke Koekkoek. The latter was elected because of individual preference votes. In February 2022, Gündoğan was expelled from the

parliamentary group A parliamentary group, parliamentary party, or parliamentary caucus is a group consisting of some members of the same political party or electoral fusion of parties in a legislative assembly such as a parliament or a city council. Parliamenta ...

and suspended from the party after thirteen party members had accused her of undesirable behavior. She filed charges of libel and defamation against Volt, Dassen and the accusers, and challenged the expulsion in civil court. The court reinstated her, ruling that Volt had not followed proper procedure. Dassen apologized. Later Volt appealed the verdict, Dassen and Koekkoek changed its parliamentary rules and Gündoğan was expelled from both the party and the parliamentary group. She did not give up her seat, so she currently sits as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

. For the local elections of 2022, 25 local chapters of the party had registered. However, according to party statements, it had failed to achieve gender-equal lists of candidates in some municipalities and was therefore contesting in fewer places than planned.

Electoral results

2019 European Parliament election

2021 Dutch general election

2022 local elections

Notes

References

{{Volt Europa Liberal parties in the Netherlands Pro-European political parties in the Netherlands Social liberal parties Political parties established in 2018 2018 establishments in the Netherlands