Sophie In’t Veld quit the D66 party and has taken a step forward to renew her mandate as MEP with pan-European party Volt, but her way onto the electoral lists will be rocky as she does not meet requirements, and the party’s leadership needs to grant her an ‘exceptional’ exemption.
On 6 June, 20-year-long Dutch MEP Sophie In’t Veld, leader of the liberal D66 party (Renew Europe) at the EU Parliament, quit her party and announced she would join pan-European Volt Nederland, as she “fully identifies with Volt’s agenda for a radical renewal of Europe,” she wrote.
“We’re happy to see such a prominent European face, an ardent fighter for European reforms, support our party and its ideals publicly”, a Volt Nederland spokesperson concluded.
Volt Nederland currently holds two seats in the Dutch parliament and multiple municipal councillors, while Volt Germany has a seat in the EU Parliament.
“In the coming weeks, I will enter into discussions with the boards of Volt Nederland and Volt Europa on how my membership of the party in the European Parliament will work”, she wrote, adding that she will stay in the Renew Europe political group as “a switch between groups has not only political implications but also practical consequences”.
Item number one in this conversation will be the future of In’t Veld in Volt’s electoral lists. At first, it seemed In’t Veld would not be able to run in the 2024 EU elections since she missed the requirement of having been registered for at least three months before being included in an electoral list, a requirement put in place “to guarantee at least some type of minimum grounding in the party”, the spokesperson from Volt Nederlands told EURACTIV.
A source close to In’t Veld confirmed that she has started the process to get an exemption and be able to run for the EU elections. “It is all still very fresh. She hasn’t had the time yet for detailed planning, but to keep all options open, the paperwork is filed to be a candidate,” the source told EURACTIV.
According to the spokesperson from Volt Nederland, granting the statutory possibility of a dispensation, which can only be done by decision of the party’s board, “is not something we take very lightly” and it is only awarded in “really strange situations”.
Volt Nederland’s EU elections lists will be finalised in October, to be approved by the party’s congress in November.
(Max Griera | EURACTIV.com)
Read more with EURACTIV
Austria’s EU minister calls for change of direction in migration policy
Source: euractiv.com
