Newsletter - December 2025

(Photo: Volt Europa General Assembly., © Hans-Günther Brünker)

Welcome to Volt Slovenia’s Monthly Newsletter (👉 Subscribe to our newsletter)

It’s December. That went fast. You think we may be heading for Christmas holidays, but we’re not. We must register as a party and we’re attempting to run in the upcoming elections in a coalition. You can help: we have to gather the 200 signatures to officially run as Volt, so if you want to help us, now is the time:

👉 How to sign for Volt

This month’s topics

What’s happening with Volt in Slovenia?

• Our first press conference

• Ljubljana petition: the aftermath

• Volt Slovenija on the Volt Europa General Assembly

• Monthly Meetup in Ljubljana

• Signature Collection Update

News from Europe

• Europe thrown under the “omni-bus”?

• Can national parties still do politics?

• Iceland considers climate change an existential risk

Updates from Volt around Europe

• Volt Italy elects first regional representative

• Volt Albania merges with Nisma

• Volt Slovakia hosts the next General Assembly in Bratislava

💡 Minis discover Europe

What’s happening with Volt in Slovenia?

Our first press conference

Photo: Borja, Matic and Sven introducing Volt Slovenija to the media, Foto: © Tine Eržen/STA

Last month, we held our first press conference in front of the Parliament. The sun came out just in time as we introduced Volt to the media.

Borja did a great speech on us not wanting to deliver sandwiches to Parliament, but new and better politics. We would like to start with a clean slate and not recycle create yet another party of a famous politician - we prefer building up over the long term.

Sven spoke about Slovenia’s role in Europa and Matic introduced our priorities. We were all a bit nervous but we think we did well.

👉 Read the report on N1

Ljubljana petition: the aftermath

A tram on Ljubljana? Forget it (Photo: City of Lyon)

Last month we presented our petition against a planned road through the Štepanjsko naselje in Nove Fužine neighbourhoods. 

We reached 1700 signatures in the end and the mayor of Ljubljana invited us to the townhall’s press conference to hand them over, which we did in front of the media. He repeated again that the road would not be built, but also that there would not be any tram in Ljubljana.

👉 We think otherwise - and Ljubljana Info picked it up

Volt Slovenija on the Volt Europa General Assembly

The Volt Slovenia team on the Frankfurt General Assembly

This year’s Volt Europa General Assembly was in Frankfurt. A record number of 1600 Volt members from all across Europe attended and Volt Slovenija also had a small team present on location. 

We organised a great evening with members from other Central European chapters and spent two days discussing cross-border politics. 

You can rewatch the live stream from Day1 and Day2 on Youtube:
👉 Day 1 Livestream
👉 Day 2 Livestream

Monthly Ljubljana meetup

Volt Ljubljana Meet+Greet

Amidst all our activities this month, we still managed to fit in a Ljubljana Meet+Greet, welcoming new members and a handful of people curious to learn more about Volt.

👉  Do you want to change things for the better? https://volt.team/simple-join/sl 

Signature Collection Update

As stated earlier, we still need your help to reach 200 signatures and officially register Volt Slovenija as a political party. Using Neill Armstrong’s words: it’s a small trip to Upvrana Enota and 3€, but a big step for Slovenian politics.

How can you sign?

We’ve prepared clear and simple IKEA-style instructions for everyone.

What does signing to found the party mean?

• You’ll be able to vote for the party leadership and approve the statutes and programme at the founding assembly.

• After registration, everyone’s welcome to become full members via Volt.team—but it’s not mandatory. Even if you don’t want to join, you can still help register Volt Slovenia with a single signature. It’s completely fine to leave it at that.

👉 More info and FAQs on our website about signatures

News from Europe

Evropa vržena pod “omni-bus”?

Ursula von der Leyen brani “omni-bus” zakonodajo (foto: BBVA)

The European Commission is pushing to close the year with a bang. And not in a good sense. Not only is our legislative agenda apparently being dictated by Donald Trump. Ursula von der Leyen and the conservative EPP also pushed through a first omnibus law (many modifications of existing legislation) dismantling key aspects of the Green Deal together with the anti-european forces. A first in European history.

With protection against climate change weakened, the next Omnibus is already on the road: the weakening of digital regulation to give more access and freedom to US tech giants on European markets. 

It is worrisome that conservatives in the European Parliament now openly seek majorities with anti-democratic forces while state leaders remain quiet not to cause the ire of Donald Trump. 

👉 Read more about the weakening of Europe’s legislation on Verfassungsblog

Can national parties still do politics?

German chancellor Friedrich Merz defending the pension reform (photo © Fabian Sommer)

It’s been a month since we wrote about the French parliament trying to decide on a budget before the end of the year. Only a few weeks remain and it will be interesting to see if parties from both sides of the spectrum find a consensus.

A similar scenario plays out in Germany where chancellor Merz is trying to secure a majority - also within his own ranks - for his pension reform.

It’s worrisome to see how in both countries, the political discourse and finding majorities is no longer straightforward. Especially considering the position of the extreme-right, democratic forces are obligated to work together. 

👉 Read more about the difficulties of doing politics today (in German)

Iceland labels climate change an existential risk

Climate change in Iceland (Photo by Taras Truba on Unsplash)

In a first in Europe, the government of Iceland has declared climate change an existential risk. Recent research showed the transatlantic stream carrying warm water to Europe risks slowing down or halting by the end of the century. This would mean much colder weather in Europe all the way to northern regions such as Iceland becoming uninhabitable.

It was not the only bad climate news for Europe this month as alarms were sounded that ground water levels are shrinking at an alarming rate. 

It’s a reminder, that even though we’re regulating the green deal away, a policy of “Don’t look up” will not lead to a happy end for future generations.

👉 Read more about Iceland’s declaration
👉 Read more about groundwater depletion

News from other Volt chapters

Volt Italy elects first regional representative

Davide d’Errico, newly elected regional councillor for Volt Italy

Italy held regional elections end of November and Volt Italy was participating in two regions.

In the Campana region, we managed to elect our first regional representative, Davide d’Errico, which was not only a great success for Volt Italy, but also added one more country to becoming a Europarty with elected representatives in at least 7 countries. With Italy we now have 4, let’s try and make Slovenia be the next one.

Volt Albania merges with Nisma Thurje

Volt Albania and Nisma Thurje on stage at the Volt Europa General Assembly in Frankfurt

During the recent Volt Europa General Assembly, Volt Albania announced that it will merge with Nisma Thurje. Both parties stand for a transparent, and Europe-focussed type of politics, that involves citizens.

With chapters in the UK, Switzerland, Ukraine and Albania, Volt is technically a step ahead of EU enlargement. In our General Assembly we therefore also started the discussion on how these non EU chapters can participate within our organization - just as the EU should review its treaties and decision making procedures before adding more countries to the mix.

Volt Slovakia hosts the next General Assembly in Bratislava

Teaser for the Volt Slovakia 2026 General Assembly

“After a General Assembly is also before a General Assembly” and our team is very happy, that next June we will be meeting again in Bratislava, as Volt Slovakia has won the bid to host our next European General Assembly.

The next General Assembly will take place June 13 and 14 and will be the occasion to elect a new European Board to lead us through the next three years and prepare the 2029 European elections.

👉 Watch the intro video featuring Borja and Sven from our team 
👉 You can already purchase tickets

Minis discover Europe

As usual, we finish with the adventures of Hedge and the Professor as they explore the European Institutions - our monthly comic by Izar Lunaček. You can find the previous episodes on Volt Slovenia’s website.

Thanks for reading! Recommend the newsletter to friends who might be interested in Volt – and we’ll catch up again next month.

– The Volt Slovenia Team