“I’m not really interested in the origins of voting, I’m interested so that when people voted for the Volt, they know what our proposal is and identify with it. If they previously voted for Y or Z, I think it is a little indifferent, but naturally or inclined to our votes coming more from center-left and center-right, “said Thiago Matos Gomes, President of Volt, in an interview with Lusa regarding legislative elections on January 30.

Thiago Matos Gomes expressed a desire to elect two deputies and recognized him as “satisfactory, but insufficient” by the party with the largest number of votes among the parties that did not receive representation in parliament.

“This has already happened in the case of Lisbon with local authorities, so we already have a starting base for legislators,” he said.

According to him, Volt Portugal “does not fit into this dichotomy of left and right” and wants votes from the center and disaffected voters.

A focus on renewable energies, the “nuclear energy debate,” defending the NHS to “be resilient and have better services,” educational reform to enable young people to drop out of school prepared “for the challenges they will face later in adulthood. age. “are the top priorities for Volt.

The Volt leader also highlighted the fight against corruption through a “European institution outside the Portuguese judiciary” as a priority measure.

Regarding the political crisis that led to the anticipation of legislative elections, Thiago Matos Gomes considered “serious irresponsibility at such a time to overthrow the government”, arguing that “this is bad for stability” and “deeply negative” when the country is in a pandemic.

Volt Portugal is running in 19 of 22 constituencies, and “if the pandemic allows,” the president wants to “travel the country with ruins, with“ leaflets ”, a lot with people to“ talk about the party and what new needs to be done for the present ”, stating that he would like the campaign to be“ positive, not against anyone, but to add value. ”

Regarding the fight against the covid-19 pandemic, Volt Portugal considers the vaccination process “successful”, noting that this was made possible by the “massive procurement of vaccines by the European Union and their distribution to member countries”, as well as the commitment of the Portuguese.

Volt Europe is a federalist and “pan-European” party that emerged internationally as a movement in March 2017 in response to Brexit initiated by a collective of students in the United States. Andrea Wenzon is the founder of this movement, which is already a political party in several European countries, namely Portugal, Germany, Bulgaria, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Luxembourg, Denmark, France, Great Britain or Sweden.

The movement originated in Portugal on December 28, 2017 and was officially recognized as a political party by the Constitutional Court in June 2020.