My name is Sven Franck. I have been a member of Volt since 2018 and I'm running for the co-presidency of Volt Europa to lead our organization of over 35.000 members in more than 30 European countries and make Volt Europa a platform for European political leadership. Our election will take place June 13 and 14 in Bratislava at our European General Assembly.

A platform for European political leadership

Europe is at a crossroads: from Putin’s war of attrition against Ukraine to risking losing Greenland and facing the fallout of the war in Iran: the challenges have never been greater. Yet, the European Union remains weak and invisible. Our heads of state are paralyzed - by their protectionism and fear of losing power. Just like "America first", it's "Germany first", "France first", "Italy first" as no leader is considering Europe as a solution. If they only knew the political relevance a United Europe could have. A Europe that echoed the same message in all member states, a Europe that gave its citizens security and a home, a Europe capable of defending itself. A Europe that would stand up for democracy and stand as equal among geopolitical blocks.

This Europe will never happen if we continue to rely on national parties and leaders. Are there any European leaders? I believe they exist in all member states, but they have no platform in national political systems. If I'm elected, I want Volt to become the platform for the European leadership which we need today and in the future for the European Union to make the next step. I want to make Volt Europa a European political force, capable of driving the narrative of what the European Union needs to look like, creating legitimacy backed by our national chapters sharing our common goals and developing leverage by making citizens understand that a stronger Europe will only happen with a vote for Volt. On European, national and on local level.

The challenge: visit local teams in 25+ countries

We rarely do transnational campaigns in Europe. No United Europe. No transnational lists. Only Volt can really campaign across borders and we should cherish every opportunity to do so, which means until our Bratislava General Assembly, I will visit local teams in countries we're active and do a transnational listening tour. It's the equivalent of bringing the EU closer to its citizens: bringing Volt Europa closer to our members. Germany and the Netherlands are our biggest chapters, so a lot of stops will be there. In some countries we are still developing - no reason to not visit. It's an internal campaign with an outward focus. It will be rough with sometimes two or three stops per day and a lot of late night and early bus trips. We never do transnational campaigns in Europe. I will do one. And I want Volt to set the example.

Here is the map and calendar. It will be updated on the go:

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Stories from the road

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  A transnational listening tour: Warm-up! (Leg 1)

  I have split my campaign into seven legs taking me through 31 countries (if all works well). Can I sleep in an overnight bus? Invite external speakers for panels? Pitch my tour to the media? A lot of questions that I wanted to answer on my warm-up stage. Find out what I found out.

• 

  A transnational listening tour: Kickoff! (Leg 2)

  With a few countries under my belt, it was time to venture to Central and South Eastern Europe from Romania to Cyprus Learn more about Volt in far away places.

• 

  A transnational listening tour: Homecoming! (Leg 3)

  With a good part of the EU covered, I made my way through Bavaria towards the Volt Germany General Assembly. My homecoming of sorts. Dip or deepdive into local politics - coming soon.

• 

  A transnational listening tour: Pause (Leg 4)

  I had to wait for the official campaign to start to continue and only found out on a Flixbus at 1am halfway to Lille that the start was postponed, so I only said hello to the teams I had planned to visit. Coming soon.

• 

  A transnational listening tour: Purple Heartland (Leg 5)

  Touring too many places to fit on a map? That can only be Belgium, the Netherlands and Northrhine-Westphalia. Learn more about the challenges in cities where Volt already is established - with a quick stop in Dublin and London in between. Coming soon.

• 

  A transnational listening tour: Sunny side Europe (Leg 6)

  I've learned about political priorities in Central and Eastern Europe. Time to get a better understanding of Volt in our Western-most member states on a short trip to the Iberian Peninsula. Coming soon.

• 

  A transnational listening tour: Grand Finale (Leg 7)

  The real stress test for my backpack since I need to fit in the cities I missed while waiting for the official campaign to start. This leg will take me to east and northern Germany, before doing a tour of northern Europe and the Baltics and - save the best for last - visiting teams in Malta and Italy before heading to Bratislava. Coming soon.

The programme

I've been preparing this candidacy for a while, because we need to hit the ground running with only a 3 year runway to the 2029 European elections. I have 5 priorities I would like Volt Europa to work on, which I will introduce here in more detail:

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  Volt as EU blueprint

  (How to build leverage with our organization)
  Volt is like a mini-EU. What if we made it functioning mini-EU following what we have in our Programme? If we practiced what we preached and became our own "best practice", we would have a powerful argument to pitch to heads of state and the Commission to copy us. Learn more.

• 

  Objective #2

  (How to make citizens feel European)
  To be announced May 14th.

• 

  Objective #3

  (How to overcome electoral thresholds and give our MEPs legal initiative)
  To be announced May 21st.

• 

  Objective #4

  (How to have influence the choice of Commissioner or enter Parliaments)
  To be announced May 28th.

• 

  Objective #5

  (How to challenge for the Commission Presidency or enter national Parliaments)
  To be announced June 5th.

The campaign objectives

Aside from trying to visit members across as many member states as possible, I would like to work on two further objectives in this campaign:

• 

  A political declaration for our Bratislava GA

  (Motion)
  A political Volt Europa has to have political messages. I'm filing a member motion to debate and vote on a political declaration to close our upcoming European General Assembly in Bratislava. To add this point to the official agenda will require endorsements from 1% of membership, so I need to find 350 members to endorse my proposal. To sign directly (Volt members only), here is the link, for more information, check the dedicated page.

• 

  9th of May - A day for European news

  (Initiative)
  On my campaign trail, I would also like to try and propose to newspapers to dedicate May 9th to what's happening in Europe. Not having to read about Trump for one day may actually feel like relief. Discover the initiative.

In the media

It is an internal campaign, but it shows what Europe should be about and that Volt tries to take the first steps. The following outlets wrote about my campaign to become Volt Europa's co-president:

• 

  A European politician in Cyprus - Sven Franck, Candidate for Co-Chair of Volt Europa

  (Cyprus)
  Our European Union should be the sum of our national identities, with 27 cultures we respect, but not 27 bureaucracies,” Sven Franck, candidate co-chair of Volt Europa, tells Politis. Read the article (English).

• 

  European with roots in Bayreuth: Sven Franck is doing politics in Slovenia now

  (Germany)
  Two years ago Sven Franck from Bayreuth was lead candidate for Volt in the European elections in France. The 50 year old has since moved to Slovenia (home of his wife), and is now active in politics there, which he talked about on a visit in Bamberg Watch the interview (German).

Stay up to date

Volt member or not, subscribe to my campaign newsletter (via Keila.io) and receive updates of my tour and how you can help. You can also follow me on social media of course, but the newsletter will have more insights and stories from the road.

Subscribe