Volt Belgium files a complaint with the Federal Ombudsman
Press Release - Volt Belgium files a complaint with the Federal Ombudsman
Read the complaint filed with the Ombudsman here (NL)
Volt clearly has enough support among the population to participate in the elections. We already have enough endorsements for a number of lists for the federal and Flemish elections. For our Dutch-speaking European list, we have almost half of the required 5,000. Given how rare it is for a new party to appear at the European elections, this is an exceptional achievement in itself.
However, it turns out that nearly 50% of the people who try to sign up via the website drop out due to technical problems with the federal government's digital registration system. This effectively doubles the number of endorsements needed, while Belgium already has an extremely high threshold compared to surrounding countries (10,200 for the European lists in Belgium, versus 4,000 in Germany and 30 in the Netherlands).
Volt Belgium has prioritised collecting endorsements from citizens. Faced with the problems and the unwillingness of the federal government to address them, the route of endorsements from sitting parliamentarians has also been pursued. However, several established parties (including those that introduced the current system) have stated they have “collectively and in principle” decided not to support the electoral participation of new parties. With such a quasi cordon sanitaire, both routes to electoral participation are effectively closed off.
"Volt has repeatedly approached the Ministry of the Interior, but no action has been taken," says the Board of Volt Belgium. There is no independent regulator in Belgium. Therefore, the only options left are to file a complaint with the Ombudsman or to take legal steps.
Especially as dissatisfaction with democracy grows and anti-democratic parties see their support increase, the incumbent parties should do everything in their power to promote political innovation, rather than sabotage it. Volt Belgium continues to commit itself, even with redoubled energy, to a far-reaching revitalization of democracy.