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Dear Volters!

We hope that this newsletter finds you well!

Welcome back!

The Board of Volt Belgium has returned from the summer break and welcomes you back! During the summer we recharged our batteries and reflected on the past months and on our greatest challenge yet ahead: the 2024 elections.

Volt Belgium at Les Retrouvailles in Liège

Great success in Liège

Volt Belgium participated for the first time at the Retrouvailles, which took place on the 3rd and 4th of September in Liège. The festival has been around for 30 years and is visited by 30.000 to 35.000 citizens annually. More than 300 organisations of all sizes and backgrounds were present at the festival - and this time also with Volt.

Our presence at the festival was a great success! We were met by citizens with a lot of curiosity. Our volunteers engaged in interesting debates with citizens on Belgian and European issues, which was an excellent exercise in the run up to the elections.

We also met and connected with other political parties and associations present at the festival. Among the things discussed, we talked about opportunities to work together on debates and social events. Stay tuned for more!

A big thank you to all volunteers that helped and represented us during the weekend!

Announcements

• Help us fill essential functions such as interim Secretary General (D/F), Community Lead (D/F), Policy Lead (D/F), Communication Lead (D/F/M), and Events Lead (D/F/M), and many more. You can read up on our vacancies here.
• Want to help just for an hour or two a week? Then volunteer for the Community Team to help with onboarding new members and by becoming a Buddy. Please reach out to us by sending an e-mail to community@voltbelgium.org.
• We are also looking for website and translation heroes! For more info, please reach out to communications@voltbelgium.org.

Updates from Europe

Volt Sweden is participating in elections from the municipal to national elections on 11 September! You can support Volt Sweden by sharing their content on social media with your Swedish contacts, such as this Tweet by our European Co-President Reinier van Lanschot.

After some intense weeks of collecting signatures back in August, Volt Italy sadly did not reach the needed signatures to register Volt for the national snap-elections on 25 September (18 September for Italian expats). This shows how difficult it is for new parties to access the Italian political system and how much Volt is needed to change the way politics is done. Our European Co-President Francesca Romana D'Antuono wrote an Op-ed for an Italian newspaper on this challenge.

In other news, Volt Croatia has joined the "It is enough" campaign, a campaign to make abortion a constitutional right in Croatia. The campaign was started by a coalition of SDP (Social Democrats; the second biggest political party) and Mozemo (green-left) with the goal to force the governing parties to launch a referendum. You can read more on Volt Croatia's website.

Upcoming General Assemblies

• 8 & 9 October: Volt Europa General Assembly in Prague. Have you already bought your tickets? 😉 More info and Ticket registration here - Members-only Infochannel and Discussion group here.
• 22 or 23 October: Volt Belgium General Assembly in Flanders. Exact day and location will be communicated to you in due time.

IMPORTANT: In order to vote at either General Assemblies, you must be a member of Volt Europa (4 September) and Volt Belgium (21 September) respectively. You can sign up as a member here.

In the case you are a Volter living in Belgium but a member of a national Volt chapter other than Volt Belgium, that allows double membership, you may also apply for Belgian membership by sending an email to secgen@voltbelgium.org.

Get in touch with us

If you have any questions, or if you want to get in touch with the Board, please send an email to board@voltbelgium.org.

Do not answer directly to this newsletter, as we do not receive the responses.

Thank you for reading!

Johanna and Carlo,
For the Board of Volt Belgium