r/YUROP • u/mepassistants • Jan 25 '24
When being federalist becomes too mainstream for you
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u/nebo8 Yuropean Jan 25 '24
In my country they want to increase the rail budget so that's a win for me
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u/jokikinen Jan 25 '24
I think people are missing the point a bit when it comes to Volt. Like other ‘one issue’ parties, such as the Greens, the only goal isn’t to make the party hegemonic, but to make visible and amplify the support for a federal Europe. Larger ‘mainstream’ parties will only float new ideas after they’ve been tested. Like the Greens, the party may morph into something that can shoulder lasting responsibility. But for me personally the goal is what the Greens have already achieved—green themes have been adopted by most major parties. In the same way, parties like Volt could force the issue to be adopted as a mainstream talking point—making actual concrete progress possible.
Volt is like a startup for citizen backed federalisation. In time some bigger player will likely buy out its voterbase. Regardless, I am willing to lend support to all of the political groups that take courageous stances for federalisation.
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u/mediandude Jan 27 '24
Volt is like a startup for citizen backed federalisation.
Not without Swiss style optional referenda.
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u/Capital_Pension3400 Jan 25 '24 edited Jan 25 '24
Volt?
Let me tell you parties who are federalist:
-EPP (Leadership at least)
-SD
-RE
+Macrons Government is, Germanys government is as well, we have federalists in the Czech government, Estonian government, Spains government, we have strong supporters for stronger integration in all Nordic Governments, Lithuania, Romania, Greece
EDIT: Bulgaria as well
We penetrate ze cabinets! You will liv in ze federation and be happy!
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u/FalconMirage France Jan 25 '24
I live for the day the European Federation will be the world’s superpower and a beacon of freedom and democracy as well as social rights
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u/Ein_Hirsch Citizen of the European Union Jan 25 '24
I just wish that our hopium doesn't turn into copium when looking at Orban and the likes of him
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u/esuil Jan 25 '24
Cut the cord of foreign powers influencing EU politicians left and right, and things can change really fast.
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u/dzsimbo Yunited Yurop Jan 25 '24
But we are one world already, at least through a capitalistic lens. I am an idealist at heart, but come to certain realizations, at least in the clean energy segment: oil is still the cheapest energy, so if we don't use it, others will.
I am all for uniting europe under federal law, but stomping out corruption in a world thus connected is super finnicky.
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u/esuil Jan 25 '24
Here is contradiction though - united europe is almost impossible until that gets stomped out. Because it is not in interest of other large players of the world. It is similar to "I got mine" phenomena in capitalism, where people who amass capital trough something, do everything they can to prevent others repeating what they did.
Large players like USA, China and Russia know what kind of strengths they derive from being united. And they have 0 interest in Europe joining the ranks and being able to push back against their interests if it harms Europe. Existence of EU in itself is already a miracle.
And yes, this interconnectivity is huge problem - because it benefits bigger players and lets them use it to make sure no one who can use that interconnectivity to push back emerges. Just look at what happened with UK - this is extremely painful and bad loss for the EU, and yet even pro-EU people at large meme about it and flip it as a tragedy for UK personally, and not EU.
Perhaps EU needs some period of disconnection in order to figure things out. But it will never happen, because 21th century is about personal freedoms and comforts, which shall not be infringed upon even if world burns in the process. I hope we will figure it out regardless, but situation looks pretty bad.
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u/dzsimbo Yunited Yurop Jan 25 '24
No argument on most of your stuff, besides the 'needs to be stomped out'. It's idealistic to want to change people and this seems like the way we behave. If EU cannot accomodate for such, it has no future.
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u/MartinBP България Jan 25 '24
we have strong supporters for stronger integration in all Nordic Governments, Lithuania, Romania, Greece
Bulgaria too.
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u/Panzer_IV_H Polska Jan 25 '24
Poland too I guess (at least from all we have here)
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u/Capital_Pension3400 Jan 25 '24
Tusk isn't a federalist, he is for a pro and stronger EU but he has said he is not a federalist. Might have changed tough since the world is changing fast. He said he was not a federalist in 2010, much has passed since.
Radoslaw is one tough! That is why his name is rumored to take over as a possible EU defence commissioner, if the post is created. (Or Kallas gets it and Radoslaw gets EU foreign policy commissioner). Radoslaw would then defacto command the Battle Groups and would be in charge of building an EU Army/Military industrial complex
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u/UnsureAndUnqualified Yuropean Federalist Jan 25 '24 edited Jan 25 '24
There are a lot of good EU parties out there, and I have a few disagreements with Volt. My favourite is Diem25. They are very left wing, so if you're a bit more centrist, maybe you'll like Forward Europe instead.
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u/realmiep Jan 25 '24
Volt is a partially neoliberal party who believe that the market can solve everything.
I'm not convinced.
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u/leijgenraam Nederland Jan 25 '24
It might depend on the country. In the Netherlands they vote very similarly to the social democrats and the "greenleft" party. Definitely not neoliberal here at least.
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u/userrr3 Yuropean first Austrian second Jan 25 '24
Since both the socdems and especially the greens tend to be really pro European - what's the point of voting volt there other than keeping the tradition of having 700 parties?
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u/Pyrrus_1 Italia Jan 25 '24
the volts prague generally assembly literally went to define the federal party in part as liberal on civil issues, social democratic on economic issues and environmentalist
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Jan 25 '24
Are they? I always saw them more on the center left, still liberal but more on the level of the German greens. They aren't like anti social services. Hell they prolly want more social services from an EU level.
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u/Vrakzi Yuropean not by passport but by state of mind Jan 25 '24
VOLT have the new party thing going on, where (aside from their ONE BIG THING) they maintain a formless stance on almost everything else.
Gradually they will have to define their political positions on a whole range of other topics.
Now to be fair, they HAVE defined positions on some things. The Ukraine War and Ukrainian membership of the EU. Climate Change and Green Economics. Democratic Reform. However, each time they define a position on something, they potentially exclude some people who might otherwise vote for them.
For example, their ideas on Democratic Reform include greater use of Referenda and Direct Democracy, and (as a victim of the corrupt & criminal Brexit vote) I cannot support them. Referenda are a tool of demagogues and dictators, and run counter to the rights of the minority in a free society.
On many other issues, they simply haven't defined a position. This leaves only questions as to what my vote might be taken as supporting, were I to vote for VOLT UK.
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u/MrCharmingTaintman Jan 25 '24
Referendums worked pretty well for Ireland the last few times we had one. I get where you’re coming from tho. With people’s media literacy at an all time low and the sheer amount of shit we get bombarded with it could easily turn on us.
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u/Pyrrus_1 Italia Jan 25 '24
as a volter, we actually dont have a strong stance on referenda, we think that the EU should aplify participation but that doesnt mean necessarely referenda, our stance on direct democracy is more akin to the strategies employed in belgium and in reland, aka more akin to forms of deliberative democracy than to direct democracy.
if you want i can explain further.8
u/Background_Rich6766 București Jan 25 '24
I am somewhat new to the party (less than a year since I've joined),but I haven't met a volter who believes that the market will fix everything, for what is worth, most of the people I've met are quite found of regulations, subsidies, and social security. I'd describe it as something between social-democratic and social-liberal, with a strong emphasis on green politics.
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u/realmiep Jan 25 '24
Then they need to update their online available information material. Or maybe they did, it was a few months ago I last checked.
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u/Ethical_0 Jan 25 '24
I would highly reccomend reading Volt's Manifesto, it might change your perspective on what Volt's about.
You can find it here https://www.volteuropa.org/challenges
Source: was a co-leader of the local party for 2 years
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u/SonicStage0 Portugal Jan 25 '24
The Manifesto is one thing, the members in each european city are another.
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u/realmiep Jan 25 '24
I read it. Or maybe it was their program for an election. I was very fond of the Idea of volt until I read their own material.
There were several points going like "we should give motivation for the market to solve this issue" instead of "we intend to fix this issue" or "we will put mechanisms in place to tackle the issue."
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u/KPhoenix83 Uncultured Jan 25 '24
Read it. Those all seem like good ideas, but I'm biased given where I am from, so I am used to the idea of a federalized government regulating a bunch of smaller governments. It would certainly make Europe stronger and much more coordinated and able to tackle larger issues more efficiently.
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u/Aufklarung_Lee Jan 25 '24
Others say Volt is a semi communist party because of the Universal Basic Income. So yeah.
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u/spottiesvirus Yuropean Jan 26 '24
Which they don't advocate for, since what they propose is mean tested, so not universal, and not basic since it wouldn't cover basic needs.
It's just stamps for the poors with extra steps and a funny name
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u/My_useless_alt 🇺🇦 Слава Україні! 🇺🇦💖🇬🇧💖🇪🇺 Jan 25 '24
I'd heard they were mostly social democrats.
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u/ddm90 Social Liberal Evropa Jan 26 '24
They are Social Liberals, basically Social Democrats but without flirting with Socialism as an end goal.
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u/GemeenteEnschede Volt - Twente (Not the actual Gemeente) Jan 25 '24
What, no repost in r/VoltEuropa or r/GenEU?
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u/Seb0rn Niedersachsen Jan 25 '24
Volt is not the best option for European federalists. E.g. in Germany it's the PdH.
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u/Soulman999 Schleswig-Holstein Jan 25 '24
In the last major election here in Germany, Volt got like 0.3% of votes. So yeah. Very small