Volt:
optimistic, but not naive
Convinced Europe
Europe is a given for them, they
campaigned without mediagenic actions and engage in conversation with people
who curse them on social media. Volt. A young generation. Heading for 25
European seats
Leader of Volt, Reinier van Lanschot (centre), at
the party office. Amsterdam, 13 May © Michel
Utrecht / HH
Europe still needs to go to the
polls. In the run-up to the European elections, Volt Nederland is campaigning
in the Glass House at Central Station in The Hague. No DJs raising money for a
good cause (the usual function of the Glass House), but young people who want
to discuss the European Union with passers-by. Volunteers from this first
pan-European political party are lugging furniture from the adjacent building
of The Hague Campus of Leiden University. Visitors to the Glass House will not
have to stand. A laptop is installed so they can make videos for the website.
Everyone helps, nobody is in charge.
"We are Europe" is a
common slogan for Volt. They come from all over Europe. They study, work or
fall in love here in the Netherlands. Just as the Dutch volunteers studied,
worked or fell in love elsewhere in Europe. These are members of the generation
for whom the Union is not a question but a fact, who know no better than that
you can travel the EU without a passport; that you can study with EU scholarships
in Lisbon, London or Leiden; and that in many EU countries you no longer have
to exchange your money.
During the pleasant, fairly disorganized
start of this campaign meeting, a young woman enters the Glass House. She looks
around searching and says to no one in particular: "Unfortunately I can't
help campaigning today, but I have some goodies for you." And she’s gone. She
has to catch a train.
Jason Halbgewachs, party
secretary, recognizes that expression of commitment to the party. In the weeks
just before the elections in Amsterdam at the party office, he sometimes worked
sixteen hours a day, and often someone dropped by with a bite to eat.
Spontaneous, not pre-arranged, let alone sent from higher up. Many a Party Tiger
from established political parties will probably now think: yes, that is still
possible if you are building the party, but just wait.
Reinier van Lanschot, Volt
Nederland's party leader in the European elections, has to laugh when I tell
him. He knows the theory about the standard cycle that an organization has to go
through. But he has been warned about all these phases. One of them said: watch
out, it’s most difficult at the start. Someone else contradicted by warning
about the expansion phase: then the momentum is gone, then tough reality takes
over.
I speak to Van Lanschot and
Halbgewachs a few weeks after the polls. They first went on holiday to rest
from the intensive campaign. The party leader went to Lebanon to meet a friend
who works in Dubai. Halbgewachs travelled via Vienna, to meet a cousin there,
to Slovakia. They do not turn their backs on making journeys inside and outside
of Europe. This generation is also a sign of this.
Volt Netherlands did not receive
enough votes for a seat in the European Parliament. But when someone walks past
our table and makes a comment about it, Van Lanschot says quietly: “We now have
one seat in Parliament and two local representatives.” Volt Germany's party
leader, Damian von Boeselager, is in Brussels and two municipalities in Germany
now have Volt candidates on the local council. As representatives of a pan-European
party, Van Lanschot and Halbgewachs also view the result as pan-European.
Volt was founded two years ago.
The Italian Andrea Venzon was the initiator and chairman of Volt Europe. Volt
participated in the European elections in eight countries and in thirteen
countries there are now official political parties with that name. Venzon
started Volt because he felt that nobody in Europe represented the values
with which he had been brought up. He thought of an open society, social
justice and a strong Europe. According to him, the middle parties hardly
mentioned that anymore. He blamed them for joining the populist jargon against
Europe.
Volt wants to stay away from the
adage that throwing mud generates attention
Look at Brexit and how Brexiters
like the British politician Boris Johnson talk about Europe. Look at how the
Forum for Democracy in the Netherlands rails against the European Union as the
PVV did before. Remember that a majority in the Dutch parliament wants to get
rid of the phrase "an ever closer union" in the Treaty of Europe. And
also how Brussels is often blamed for everything that goes wrong in France,
Italy or Hungary. Taking the initiative for a pan-European party is then like
rowing upstream against a strong current. That takes a dose of optimism,
otherwise you won’t survive.
But we are not naive, Van
Lanschot adds immediately. He jokes that Volt sometimes resembles the European
Union. He then refers to the differences he sees between how volunteers from
different countries think and act. He dares to admit that these are cultural
differences that go back far into history. In the months that he worked hard to
get a seat for Volt Nederland, he also acquired a better understanding of the
tension between national and European, between what is good for his own country
and what is good for the Union.
That is not a reason for Van
Lanschot or Halbgewachs to stop believing in Europe. On the contrary. They are
convinced that countries of Europe can only work together if they want to combat
emerging superpowers like China. Van Lanschot is reading Grand Hotel Europa by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer. Europe as a huge
amusement park and museum and the Chinese as our colonizer: that is a brief
summary of what the author outlines in his novel. And Van Lanschot, Halbgewachs
and their generations are the new forced labourers, they joke afterwards.
To protect Europe from this, Van
Lanschot has resigned from AHold and Halbgewachs took a number of months of
unpaid leave from the consultancy where he works. There were people in their
area who did not understand this. Halbgewachs tries to explain to me what he
has received in return in the form of experience, encounters, the pleasure of
working together for a focused goal, what you learn from it. But as he talks,
he realizes that this sounds as if he only did it for his resumé. He tries to
correct that. He and many of the Volt volunteers want to get rid of the pressure
to perform that is also characteristic of their generation.
For Van Lanschot, commitment to a
goal like Europe means giving meaning to life. He can’t imagine that, after his
studies, he would get a job, possibly get some promotion every few years and
start earning more, maybe have children - and that’s that. Halbgewachs has
peers who work, go home, sit on the couch in the evening watching series and
think they are busy. Everyone has a choice, he wants more.
But helping set up a new party,
isn't that the opposite extreme? Van Lanschot recalls that Prime Minister Mark
Rutte called them naive during the election campaign. Rutte apparently saw no
potential, Van Lanschot thinks. That is why he is all the prouder that Volt has
gained a seat in the European Parliament. It does not seem to bother them that
a newcomer in the Netherlands, such as the Forum for Democracy, immediately plays
a leading role with several seats. On the contrary. They have gained that one
seat, the two men emphasize, by conducting a campaign that was devoid of eye-catching
stunts. Volt wants to keep its distance from the adage among campaign gurus
that throwing mud and playing the man generates attention.
Volt members remain polite on
Twitter and Facebook. During the election campaign, however, they often had
plenty of mud flung at them on social media. Volt responds to those messages
that curse them. Their experience is that the sender is often shocked when he
receives a polite message back from them, sometimes even apologizes and wishes
them success. Halbgewachs compares it to swearing at other road users in the
safe cocoon of a car. A pedestrian on the pavement wouldn’t tend to do that. He
is vulnerable. That is what it is all about, on social media and in politics.
They are strengthened in their resolve by the fact that a Dutch celebrity and actress
like Katja Schuurman let them know publicly in advance that she was voting for
Volt.
After his unpaid leave,
Halbgewachs has since returned to work as an externally hired consultant with
the government. Van Lanschot is looking for a job now that he has not been able
to get a seat in the European Parliament. Both remain committed to Volt. They
hope that their party can participate in the next European elections in all the
member states. And then get more seats. Preferably 25, then the Volt delegates
can form their own group in the European Parliament. They aren’t that far yet,
so Volt has become a member of The Greens/EFA in Brussels for the time being.
Volt also wants to get a foothold
nationally. Van Lanschot says that within the party they realize that, in order
to gain influence in Brussels, you also have to have influence in the member
states, so here in the Netherlands in The Hague. That is where decisions are
taken about what the Netherlands wants to achieve in Brussels. And yes, they
are contributing to further fragmentation in parliament. They often hear that
reproach.
But they have no choice, they
think. Even the political party that is the strongest advocate for Europe in
the Dutch parliament, D66, does not express their ideal for them. Volt wants a
Europe with a parliament with groups of purely pan-European parties. A
parliament that has just as much power as Capitol Hill in the United States of
America. They are therefore striving for a federal Europe, for a United States
of Europe. At a time when the words "an ever closer union" are
already contaminated for many, the f-word is taboo and others even argue for a
departure from the Union, this is a sign of optimism. Although their opponents
will gladly continue to frame that as naive.
Aukje van Roessel has been working as a political editor
for De Groene Amsterdammer since 2004. For her weekly chronicle In The
Hague she received the 2015 Anne Vondeling Prize for political journalism.
Before she started at De Groene, she worked as a journalist at
Brabant Pers, de Volkskrant and NRC Handelsblad. She was a guest
lecturer at the School for Journalism in Utrecht, gave courses in writing to
employees of communication departments and was a panel member of the radio
programme Villa VPRO Media
