Volt Malta President: ‘Our voters identify as progressive Europeans’

As general elections are looming and more than 12% of the voters are currently undecided, Michael Kaden wanted to know more about the stances of this new party.

Lasys: Our current priorities circulate around corruption. We need to address that. We are aiming to do that through a more transparent government, increasing the separation of power.

We are also focussing on migration. This is an issue that has been generally approached from a very nationalistic perspective.

We are hoping to bring a European perspective and we are working with our European partners to create a European system to address this situation.

We are also working on the environment. We need to flesh out a very long-term sustainable policy for Malta as the current process cannot continue for very long.

Another matter which we are very passionate about is social equality. This is something where we see a lot of work needs to be done, such as in the field of abortion.

We are pushing towards the decriminalisation of abortion in Malta. We also want to classify contraceptives as essential medicines.

But, is it advisable to enter the political scene with such still controversial issue?

Lasys: Well, we believe it is important to stick by our values and as a pro-choice party on the European and national level, we cannot inch towards it. We have to stand by what we believe in, this along many other issues.

The policies we as Volt have are developed by the European members as a whole, so we already have a broad range of stances on a number of issues.

Small parties have never had it easy. The recently merged ADPD doesn’t even reach 1% in the surveys. How can Volt win this challenge?

Lasys: We see some challenges, however it presents opportunities to approach the political system in Malta from a fresh perspective. We are presenting ourselves as a European party with presenting solutions that exist across Europe.

Being a single party we are not that new and not that small. Our members are already represented in the European Parliament through our MEP whom we are in constant contact with, and also our MPs in the Netherlands and other countries where we are gaining representation.

So we are learning from across the European Union how to best approach electoral systems and situations and also how to present the best solutions for the citizens we aim to represent.

Who should vote for Volt?

Lasys: Volt voters are progressives, they are people who identify as European or want a different perspective on subjects such as a pragmatic, non-ideological approach all based on best practice.

Volt voters would be those who believe in meritocracy and more transparency and further democratisation both on the national level and on European level.

Do you think Volt is the right party for you? The next general election is expected to be held in October.