Monthly September 2026: Your update from the Co-Presidents!

✅  What happened last month:

• [Politics] Reinier participated in the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in Kyiv, meeting with political representatives from 28 countries to discuss military aid for Ukraine. He was also on the train that barely escaped a Russian drone attack that hit the train passing afterwards, which you may have heard about in the news. Everyone is well, but it was a big scare and shows Russia's willingness to escalate the conflict further.

• [Politics] Volt Madrid has joined tens of thousands of demonstrators occupying central Madrid to demand stricter rent controls and systemic housing reforms. The high-profile eviction of Maricarmen triggered massive nationwide protests across Spain, reigniting fierce debate over the country's soaring housing costs and resulting in a snap election on the 29th of November. This also emphasises the importance of the ECI Rights to Housing, which you can sign here if you haven't done so yet.

• [Politics] In the Dutch Parliament, Volt, led by Laurens Dassen and Progressive Netherlands, led by Jesse Klaver, entered the budget negotiations together, hoping to pull the cabinet to the left. If the cabinet collaborates with the PRO and Volt combination, that will ensure a majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives, which can secure progressive priorities like climate initiatives, public spending, and fair taxation locked into the national budget.

• [Politics] Have you already signed up for the “We are the 1 Million”? Interested in how many people from your country have done the same? We got you! Here are some numbers to keep you informed: For now, we have 4847 sign ups in total, with Germany leading the country contest with 1887 people! It’s followed by the Netherlands with 1157 and Italy with 352 sign-ups. Next we have 206 from Belgium, 170 from Spain, 169 from France, 133 from Portugal and others. See more on the map! Would you like to see your country on top of the list? Then spread the word about “We are the 1 Million.” We are also preparing to roll out the initiative to chapters and local teams because it’s a great project to build a supporter base for any future election.

🔮 Coming up:

• [Organisation] On the 14th, Sven will join Volt Eesti for an event to discuss and prepare for next year’s parliamentary elections. We will need a lot of luck and support from Thomas Ilves to get to 500 members and be able to launch Volt Estonia. Participating in the upcoming election can be an accelerator towards our first chapter in the Baltics.

• [Politics] On the 15th of October, Inês will be speaking at the Geneva Peace Forum on “Elections at a Crossroads: Leveraging Data-Driven Programming for Peaceful Transitions”.

• [Politics] On the 15th of October, Sven will be speaking at the EFNI Forum in Sopot on “European democracy: Is the liberal order sustainable?” The Programme is here (currently only in Polish).

• [Politics] Inês has been organising the Launch of the Housing ECI in Portugal, with a big event in Lisbon coming up on the 27th of October. Stay tuned for that!

📅  Events for your calendar:

• Our next GA will take place online on the 28th of November! Ahead of this, we would like to remind you to contribute to the "United States of Europe" consultation and help us find the best name for the Europe we want to see. 

📚 Good reads to break a long workday:

• Alberto Alemanno - What the State of the Union Was Meant to Do (but never did). Created to make Europe’s priorities transparent and accountable, the annual speech has failed its democratic promise: to explain what Europe can and cannot do and where national governments block it.

• Andrius Kubilius - Breakthrough in European Defence. European Commissioner for Defence and Space, Andrius Kubilius, outlines a major breakthrough in European defence, highlighting Ursula von der Leyen's official call for a European Security Council. He gives credit to the informal European Defence Union Group in the Parliament, also linking to its initiators: Volt Europa.

• Sacha Courtial and Sophie in t' Veld - It is not the heads of state who will create the United States of Europe. “Let's not be mistaken: in the current geopolitical context, all European states, including France and Germany, are small countries” (in French).

📰 Volt In the press:

Media highlights from last week. Translations in your language and more press coverage available on Haiilo’s Volt in the Press section - collected by Jacob Lippold since 2022

• (Germany/Frankfurt) Frankfurter Neu Presse - Nina Adam wins a seat in the Römer for Volt by the very narrowest of margins. The 36-year-old had initially intended merely to support Volt through her membership. But within a few weeks, she found herself fully absorbed by party work – and now works 24/7 for Volt (02.09.2026).

• (Europe) Trouw - Interview with Reinier. MEP Reinier van Lanschot narrowly escaped a Russian drone attack whilst on a train: ‘It gave me quite a fright.’ The Dutch politician Reinier van Lanschot escaped a Russian drone attack whilst travelling on a train full of prominent European politicians, near the Polish border. Like Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, he fears an ‘escalation of the war’, which is creeping ever closer to Europe (14.9.2026).

• (Czechia) Denik Referendum by Mikuláš Peksa - The EU has the tools to tackle rising prices, but is unwilling to use them. For the second time in four years, Europe is paying the price for its energy dependence. Yet, just two days before the State of the Union address, the European Parliament refused to debate the issue of rising prices at all. Solutions do exist, but the will to implement them is lacking (16.9.2026).

• (Netherlands) Dagblad - Progressief Nederland (PRO) and Volt will be joining forces in the coming period in negotiations with the government on the 2027 budget. Both parties announced this on Friday evening. If the minority government can count on the support of these two parties, it will have a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate (25.9.2026).

• (Germany/Buchholz) Kreiszeitung Wochenblatt - The citizens of Buchholz have voted for change. In the run-off election, Dr Michael Riedel, who was supported primarily by Volt, the Greens and the Buchholz List – and, ahead of the run-off, also by Die Linke and Bernhard Unger – won by a clear margin with 57.2 per cent of the vote (27.9.2026).

Let’s accelerate and build the future of Europe together!

Your Executive Team 💜