Lost among the most boring national elections in the Netherlands this week was the emergence of Volt, a pro-Europe anti-populist party made up of students and young professionals who snatched three seats in the Dutch Parliament – the first national electoral success in its five years of existence .
Volt was not the only outside group to win a seat or two in the elections. A politician came to Parliament directing a tractor with flashing lights to claim your newly won seat for a farmers’ party. Sylvana Simons, a former TV presenter, won a seat for “Bij1”, an anti-capitalist party. A new anti-immigrant far-right party won four seats.
In the past two decades, however, it was the populists and the far-right parties that played the insurgent role in Dutch politics, promoting anti-immigrant, anti-establishment and anti-European policies. Although it is never a serious threat to seizing power, in 2016 the representatives of these parties initiated and won a referendum in the Netherlands on an EU trade treaty with Ukraine, temporarily suspending the agreement.
This makes this week’s victory for newcomer Volt even more remarkable. The party is vehemently pro-Europe, something that most traditional parties thought was a total departure for voters.
“Most people of my generation grew up paying in euros and never having to think about crossing borders,” said Laurens Dassen, 35, the Dutch leader of the party. “For us, Europe is a fact of life.”
Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose center-right Party for Freedom and Democracy, comfortably won the largest number of seats for the fourth time since 2010, it has a strained relationship with Europe. Last year, for example, he bothered southern European countries when he refused to discuss financial support during the pandemic and brought a biography of Chopin to the meetings because he did not plan to speak in any way.
The Volt’s success in the Netherlands is even more notable because it is not even a Dutch party, but an offshoot of a European movement, with 9,000 members spread across Europe, and a few more in Switzerland and Albania. The main party was founded in 2016 by Andrea Venzon, 29, an Italian resident in London, and is present in all 27 member states of the European Union.
Mr. Dassen, who grew up in Knegsel, a village near Eindhoven, played in the local youth orchestra and, after studying business administration, went to work at ABN Amro bank, checking processes for money laundering transactions.
But he was concerned about the rise in populism and far-right parties, he said, and “in 2018 I read an article about the Volt, decided to get in and gave up my job a few months later to really try to get the party started”.
In the Dutch elections, the Volt accumulated a large number of votes in several Dutch student cities like Delft and Leiden, driven in part by a social media campaign and an extensive network of volunteers.
Another pro-European party, The The D66 won four extra seats this week, making it the second largest party in parliament. Its leader, Sigrid Kaag, is a former United Nations special envoy to Syria and a former Minister of Trade and Development for Foreign Affairs.
Since no party in the Dutch parliament commands the majority, analysts say the idiosyncrasies of coalition building could bring Volt into the government bloc along with Rutte and Kaag.
Whatever the outcome of this forced negotiation, analysts think the Volt’s future is bright in the Netherlands.
“They can be big here and fold their chairs if they can be even stronger in the climate,” said Felix Rotterberg, campaign strategist longtime affiliated with the social-democratic party PvdA. “Volt has youth, and there will be only more in the future.”
The party is on a winning streak in other parts of Europe, although nothing is as well known as its victories in the Netherlands. Volt now has more than 30 elected representatives across Europe, mainly in municipalities in Germany and Italy. But he also won his first seat in the European Parliament, in the person of Damian Boeselager, 33.
In the coming months, the Volt will be nominating candidates in national elections in Bulgaria and Germany, in a regional vote in Spain and in local elections in Italy. After Brexit this year, its British members are starting a re-entry campaign in Europe.
Its leaders emphasize the pan-European character of the Volt, which they say sets it apart from any other party in Europe.
“Each of our members has the right to vote directly at the European level, they can choose our board and influence our policies directly,” said Valerie Sternberg, 30, the co-chairman of the party based in Germany. “No matter where you live in Europe, even in Britain. ”
The party has no youth organization. “Most of us are also young,” she said.
Sternberg said he wept “tears of joy” when he learned of the success of the Dutch chapter in Volt, and said the party is now turned to Germany, which will have national elections in the fall.
“Our weak point is in the rural areas of Europe, we need to get our message out there, now the populists are winning there,” she said. “We hope Covid is showing people that isolation makes us weak and cooperation makes us stronger.”