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Europe’s nationalists have made waves for their focus on national “glory,” and what they describe as restoring sovereignty, and they haven’t been afraid to team up across borders to advance that cause. Politicians like Nigel Farage, Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini have built careers on railing against the European Union, coalescing support through social media-driven campaigns in favor of undermining the bloc.
In recent years, however, there has been activity on the polar reverse of the political spectrum. Volt, a party with branches in every EU member state, advocates continental European unification with a more centralized, federal government — to some, a “United States of Europe.” Though Europe-wide political parties already exist under the EU’s parliamentary system, with national parties being sorted into distinct European parties, Volt takes a different approach and runs under the same banner across the continent. That means there is a Volt Netherlands, a Volt France, a Volt Poland, and so on.
The party has seen flashes of success in a few contexts. Volt Netherlands holds seats in the Dutch parliament. It’s easier to win seats there than virtually any other country in Europe, and infighting has since derailed the party’s momentum, but their emergence in the Netherlands represented a beachhead for a party with extravagant goals. Volt Bulgaria has also won seats through alliance deals, but lost them in a whirl of successive Bulgarian elections.
In European parliamentary elections held in 2019, a year after their founding, Volt ran in 7 member states and won a single seat. This year, Volt competed in 15 different countries and secured 5 seats.
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Brad’s View
Like the European Union itself, Volt is a massive tent, encompassing many different voices. Some in the party are centrist Atlanticists, while others envision a progressive unified Europe. And while Volt has made headway in a few countries, they’re still irrelevant across much of the continent.
But the phenomenon points to the increasingly wide range of political possibilities in our time. Through organization on social media, distance is erased, and transnational political parties may be viable.
In an era of celebrity politicians and cults of personality, can personal popularity translate across borders? Could a politician with a particularly hardcore fanbase campaign for influence in multiple countries? Beyond merely identifying themselves with a global strain of politics, an ambitious politician could theoretically launch their own branded movement that competes for votes in neighboring elections.
If the idea sounds far-fetched, there are already parallels. El Salvador’s authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele is also the most popular leader in Central America, with sky-high approval ratings in the region. “Bukele has become a messiah in Honduras as well,” offered one local analyst in 2021. The Salvadoran leader is a proponent of the concept of a “Central American union.” We can imagine whom he envisions at the helm of that proposal.
The modern politician or political party may no longer be confined to just one country. Empires may be forged from war, but the power of branding could prove as potent.
Notable
Nationalist parties can run across borders, too. Kosovo’s governing party, the left-wing LVV, advocates a “Greater Albania” and has fielded candidates in neighboring countries Albania and North Macedonia. In Romania, right-wing AUR pushes for unification with Moldova, where the party has a branch. AUR leader George Simion has been banned from Moldova for political agitation.