Pro-European Political Movement

Mar 21 2021

You might have missed that they had an election in the Netherlands last week, March 15th to 17th 2021.

The governing party won a fourth term, so no surprises there. But, the Pro-Europe party Volt took three seats.

The remarkable fact is that Volt Nederland is not exactly a Dutch party, it is the Dutch branch of the Pan-European movement Volt Europa, which has presence all over Europe, and has one representative in the European Parliament, from the German branch.

Here is an article from The New York Times with more details about the Dutch election, A Pro-Europe, Anti-Populist Youth Party Scored Surprising Gains in the Dutch Elections

Last year I wrote about the need to start a Global Extreme Centrist Ultra Non-Partisan Party. Volt is not global (yet), but as they say “politics is the art of the possible”, this is possible now, and a really big step in the right direction. (Besides it is Volt Europa, so it is EU-centric, but you do have to start somewhere.)

This highlights the same generational gap that Brexit did; older people are more nationalistic, and most young people in Europe identify as Europeans, in addition to whatever their nationality is.

Just one quote before I let you get along with Volt Europa and the NYT article.

Laurens Dassen, the 35-year old leader of the Dutch party:

“Most people of my generation grew up paying in euros and never having to think about crossing borders.”

“For us, Europe is a fact of life.”