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Volt Netherlands (, commonly abbreviated to Volt) is a political party in the Netherlands. It is the Dutch chapter of Volt Europa, a political movement that operates on a European level.
The 2019 European Parliament election was the first election in which Volt took part. The party obtained 106,004 votes in the Netherlands, more than 100,000 votes too few for a seat. The party received most of its votes in university cities, such as Amsterdam, Leiden, Utrecht, and Wageningen. Although the Dutch chapter of Volt was unable to win a seat in the European Parliament, it was represented by Volt Germany, which obtained one seat.
In 2021, the party participated in the Dutch general election. On 25 October 2020, the party adopted its candidate list, with Laurens Dassen as the lead candidate. In early 2021, the Electoral Council announced that Volt Netherlands would participate in all 20 electoral districts. National opinion polling typically excluded the party until six weeks before the election, when its popularity increased; a number of polls in the days leading up to election day projected Volt Netherlands to win up to three seats. Volt ultimately won 2.4% of votes, its best national performance in any election to date, and three seats, marking the party's first entrance into a national legislature. The three seats of Volt were filled by Laurens Dassen, Nilüfer Gündoğan, and Marieke Koekkoek. The latter was elected because of individual preference votes.
In February 2022, Gündoğan was expelled from the parliamentary group and suspended from the party after thirteen party members had accused her of undesirable behavior. She filed charges of libel and defamation against Volt, Dassen, and her accusers, and challenged the expulsion in civil court. The court reinstated her, ruling that Volt had not followed proper procedure. Dassen apologized. Volt subsequently appealed the verdict, Dassen and Koekkoek changed its parliamentary rules and Gündoğan was expelled from both the party and the parliamentary group. She did not relinquish her seat and sat as an independent until the snap election of November 2023, in which she did not contest.
For the local elections of 2022, 25 local chapters of the party had registered. However, according to party statements, Volt Netherlands had failed to achieve gender-equal lists of candidates in some municipalities and was therefore contesting in fewer places than planned.
Following the 2023 Senate election, the party entered the Senate with two seats, having received an additional seat after dissident GroenLinks elector Debora Fernald cast a vote for Volt. Sophie in 't Veld, a member of the European Parliament for D66, announced on 16 June 2023 that she had left her party and joined Volt. On 7 April 2024, she was elected as the European lead candidate for Volt Europa together with Damian Boeselager.
Volt Netherlands maintained two seats in the general election of 2023, down from the three seats it had won in 2021. The party entered the European Parliament after winning two seats in the 2024 European Parliament election. In the general election of 2025, Volt won only one seat and Koekkoek did not return as a member of parliament.
Volt's declared goal is a federal United Europe. To achieve this, the party wants a European constitution, government and prime minister.
The party sees immense opportunities in AI systems, but at the same time emphasises that these should not be blindly left to the free market. The party is in favour of an ethical AI policy at national, European and international level. Among other things, Volt proposes providing every citizen with their own Chatbot based on open source and reliable data. AI systems should be labelled as safe by an independent party and school children should receive a basic AI education including programming and ethics. Volt also wants to oblige AI providers to disclose data sources and emphasises the need for transparency.
Volt wants to expand the House of Representatives from 150 to 250 members and lower the voting age to 16.
Volt Netherlands does not run an independent list for the water board elections. Instead, like GroenLinks and D66, it recommends that its voters support Water Natuurlijk, an independent, green-oriented political party focused solely on water board elections.
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