Volt Spain (short name: Volt, Spanish: Volt España) is a political party in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. It is part of the pan-European party and movement

Volt Europa Volt Europa (frequently abbreviated as Volt) is a pro-European and European federalist political movement that also serves as the pan-European structure for subsidiary parties in several EU member states. Volt candidates stood on a common, pan- ...

, which advocates for closer European and cross-border cooperation and is characterised by its supranational character. As part of Volt, it has a Member of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

Damian Boeselager Damian Hieronymus Johannes Freiherr von Boeselager (born 8 March 1988) is a German business consultant, journalist and Volt Europa politician who has sat in the European Parliament since being elected in 2019. Early life and education Damian Boes ...

, who represents the party there.

History

Volt Spain was officially registered as a party on 25 January 2019, as the third national section, and contested the 2019 European Parliament elections for the first time. It obtained 32,291 votes (0.14%) and thus did not win a mandate. In May 2021, the party contested the municipal elections in Madrid for the first time since the European elections, but did not win a mandate. During the municipal elections, representatives of the right-wing populist Vox warned against confusing Volt with their own party, as the placement of the ballot papers next to each other was, according to them, intended to cause confusion. In fact, the order of the ballot papers was based on the order of the candidacies submitted. In September 2021, the party supported the referendum for the legalisation of euthanasia in Italy and collected signatures for the initiative in Spain. The party took part in a local election for the first time in May 2023. The average age of Volt in Spain is 35. The party plans to run in the 2024 European elections with top candidate Clara Panella Gómez.

Policies

In its programme, the party strongly advocates

European federalism The United States of Europe (USE), the European State, the European Federation and Federal Europe, is the hypothetical scenario of the European integration leading to formation of a sovereign superstate (similar to the United States of Americ ...

with the goal of a federal European state. Volt sees close European cooperation as a central necessity in order to successfully meet challenges such as digitalisation, the fight against

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

and

social inequality Social inequality occurs when resources in a given society are distributed unevenly, typically through norms of allocation, that engender specific patterns along lines of socially defined categories of persons. It posses and creates gender c ...

. Further demands of the party are more transparency in politics and an improvement of

public administration Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit est ...

, which is to be digitalised and built on

open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Op ...

. Gender, religion or origin should have no influence on social status.

Judiciary

The party calls for a reform of the judiciary. In order to avoid politicisation and deadlock, a specialised committee of judges' associations, universities and bar associations should be introduced to elect members of the

General Council of the Judiciary The General Council of the Judiciary ( es, Consejo General del Poder Judicial, CGPJ) is the national council of the judiciary of Spain. It is the constitutional body that governs all the Judiciary of Spain, such as courts, and judges, as it i ...

. In addition, the Attorney General should be appointed by parliament, not by the

executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dir ...

, to ensure that public interests are paramount.

Social policy

In order to support students, senior citizens and low-income families, subsidized housing, modelled on Austria, is to be promoted and the privatisation of public resources in the housing sector is to be stopped.

Agriculture, environmental and animal protection

The welfare and dignity of animals should be enshrined in the constitution and

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their Utilitarianism, utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding s ...

should be enshrined in civil law. Bullfighting is to be banned in Spain and, along the way, tax breaks and financial state subsidies are to be eliminated. The party also advocates hunting restrictions and the design of a more

sustainable agriculture Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs. It can be based on an understanding of ecosystem ser ...

with a common European food policy to avoid

food waste Food loss and waste is food that is not eaten. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous and occur throughout the food system, during production, processing, distribution, retail and food service sales, and consumption. Overall, about o ...

and

environmental damage Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution. It is defin ...

Marine protected areas Marine protected areas (MPA) are protected areas of seas, oceans, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity for a conserv ...

are to be expanded to protect

flora and fauna In biology, an organism () is any living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells (cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonomy into groups such as multicellular animals, plants, and fungi ...

from intensive shipping. Nature conservation is to be promoted to counter the advancing desertification and

climate crisis ''Climate crisis'' is a term describing global warming and climate change, and their impacts. The term and the alternative term ''climate emergency'' have been used to describe the threat of global warming to humanity (and their planet), and to u ...

and to preserve Spain's biodiversity.

EU reform

Volt proposes that the EU president be directly elected in future. The

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

should evolve and be governed by a European government headed by a prime minister elected by the

. To this end, the EU should first become more transparent and form a complete economic and monetary union. Migration is to be organised through binding admission quotas.

Catalonia

The party has spoken out against

Catalan independence The Catalan independence movement ( ca, independentisme català; Spanish: ''independentismo catalán'') is a social and political movement (with roots in Catalan nationalism) which seeks the independence of Catalonia from Spain. The beginning ...

and sees no currently existing restrictions and violations of civil rights in Catalonia that would justify a unilateral declaration of independence. Instead, the leaders call for dialogue to end the political deadlock.

Elections

European Election 2019

Parliamentary election in Andalusia 2022

Volt contested the parliamentary election in Andalusia with a 40-page manifesto, but only fielded candidates in Málaga, and thus only in one of the 8 provinces. The party received 904 votes (0.14% in Málaga, 0.02% in all of Andalusia).

External links

Website of Volt Spain

References

{{Volt Europa

Political parties in Spain Pro-European political parties in Spain Green political parties in Spain Liberal parties in Spain Political parties established in 2018 2018 establishments in Spain Organisations based in Madrid