Volt Hauts-de-France

What's Volt ?

Volt was created on the day the Brexit voting results were announced and has since grown to be present in 29 European countries with political parties established in 15 of them. We are a citizens' movement that volunteers to work towards a more participatory, progressive and pan-European way of doing politics - with a focus on redefining what ecology, solidarity and democracy should mean in the 21st century.

With little experience and financial means, we participated in the European elections in eight countries. We won an MEP elected in Germany, who our members voted to join the Greens/European Free Alliance group. As Europe is considered to be "far away", we are looking to the local level and regional level to increase our citizens' movement and to represent our values and objectives - including a different Europe - in upcoming elections.

What's the difference?

Volt's idea is to give a voice to citizens, to facilitate the development of a policy agenda focused on citizens' needs and to find ways to implement it - whether we are elected or not. Most of us are volunteers with little experience or political background. We care about the issues themselves rather than about power, and advocate for a different way of doing politics.

We believe that a democracy is defined not only by voting for representatives, but also by involvement in local communities and associations, bringing important issues into debate, proposing ideas and working closely with the administration. And like this administration, we must strive to serve all citizens, to be effective and responsive in meeting their evolving needs, to listen and implement an agenda that will win the consensus of citizens and propose answers to the challenges we face today.

The Hauts-de-France… let's define our identity!

What should a region at a crossroads of Europe represent? A region with a rich heritage and industrial tradition which - as elsewhere on the continent - must strive to find a new role for itself and its inhabitants. According to the regional development plan (SRADDET) and the priorities of the annual regional budget of around €3 billion, the Hauts-de-France will primarily be a road and river transit zone and a logistics warehouse. Is that all we can imagine? Don't the challenges we face - from fighting unemployment to mitigating the effects of climate change and creating a positive outlook not only in the metropolitan areas, but throughout the region - deserve our full attention? In this context, should we ask ourselves why extremist parties reached 40% in the Hauts-de-France in the first round of the last regional elections? We can do better than that! Let's create a programme that aims to ensure the livelihoods of today's and tomorrow's inhabitants. With a citizen's list of candidates and supporters and a programme built on contributions from all interested parties. To find out more about our programme, go to the programme page. If you would like to stand as a candidate, go to the citizen application page to register.