Declarations of Support for three electoral lists are complete; call to parties for the rest
PRESS RELEASE - Declarations of Support for three electoral lists are complete; call to parties for the rest
Antwerp and Flemish Brabant Complete Collection of Support for Volt
Volt Belgium: Declarations of Support for three electoral lists are complete; call to parties for the rest
Volt Belgium is happy to announce that sufficient support declarations have been collected for the electoral lists in the federal constituency of Antwerp, and the regional constituencies of Antwerp and Flemish Brabant. We hope that other lists will also reach the required number within the timeframe.
At the same time, Volt calls on all democratic parties represented in the Chamber and the Senate to enable Volt's participation in the 9 June elections at all levels - by submitting their declaration of support.
Volt Belgium has written to members of the Chamber and Senate, as well as to all party chairpersons, asking for declarations of support to run in specific electoral lists. The established parties advocate for democratic renewal, and have already shown their support to other newcomers. In this spirit, Volt Belgium counts on their support for our participation in the elections.
The number of signatures required to run in Belgium is excessive compared to neighboring countries. To run in the complete European Parliament elections, for example, Belgium requests 10,200 declarations of support. Germany only requires 4,000 and only 30 are needed for the Netherlands!
Nonetheless, Volt Belgium has given priority to citizen signatures. In total, about five thousand support declarations have already been collected for our electoral lists. As a result, some federal and Flemish electoral lists have already received sufficient support declarations from citizens. The European Dutch-speaking list has already collected more than 2,000 support declarations. No other party has achieved this, nor even seriously tried.
The actual support for Volt's participation is in fact greater. There are strong indications that nearly half - 47% - of those willing to sign, drop out due to technical problems with the federal government's digital platform. Despite repeated reports to the Ministry of the Interior, the technical problems continue. Volt Belgium will file a complaint about this with the Ombudsman.
9 June is a super election day. To make it a true festival of democracy, it is important to offer voters as wide a choice as possible from a diverse and vibrant political landscape.
Political renewal is essential to keep our democracy vital and robust.