We are the first pan-European party – we design policies for a united Europe that reaches beyond borders. Across 31 countries, we encourage citizens to rethink politics and to help shape it at the local, national and European levels. We are pan-European, pragmatic and progressive. Drawing on shared values and goals, we ask bold questions and offer workable solutions to the challenges Europe faces.

2016: Brexit, Trump and populism

In 2016, the Brexit vote, the election of Donald Trump and the rise of right-wing populism in Europe spurred three young Europeans to stop standing idly by. With Volt, Italian Andrea Venzon, Frenchwoman Colombe Cahen-Salvador and German Damian Boeselager created a cross-border political approach for Europe – to find new, pragmatic and progressive answers to the challenges of our time.

Volt aims to shape solutions at the local, national and European levels.

In 2019, Volt took part in the European elections in several EU countries for the first time, running a cross-border campaign on a European platform, through which Damian Boeselager was elected as Volt's first Member of the European Parliament.

Good news for the progressive democratic camp: in only its second European elections, Volt won 2.6% of all votes in Germany – a big increase on 2019. Volt now has five Members of the European Parliament. Alongside Damian Boeselager – co-founder and, until now, Volt Europa's only MEP – two more were elected: Nela Riehl, the first Black lead candidate in German European elections, and Kai Tegethoff, a dedicated local politician and member of the city council in Braunschweig. Two further MEPs, Anna Strolenberg and Reinier van Lanschot, come from the Netherlands, where Volt won 4.9% of the vote.