DM is ook nog eens een veel betere winkel om naartoe te gaan dan Kruidvat en echt iedereen in Duitsland komt er ook. Positionering is dus ook breder.

Oh look, let’s work together in undermining the #EU

cooperation, and have grown up with freedom, incl no fear of arrest or death for speaking out against our government.
Russia is a feudal system where people need to know their place. It isn’t comparable.
Of course I’d prefer Russians to protest the war, but it’s not straightforward that they can.

for what we believe to be right, but would we? How many protesters were there in Antwerp or Amsterdam when the nazis were rounding up jews?
We in Europe know spheres of influence is an ideology that leads to war, so we embraced the rules-based ideology after WWI and II. We are focused on peace and

how to keep countries under the Russian sphere and extend it to more countries in both overt and covert ways.
The media is state-dominated and let’s concede that public opinion is strongly influenced by the media.
There’s protest, but protest is also dangerous. It’s nice to think we’d stand up

Russia’s society is different from ours. Why assume they want peaceful relations with their neighbours? To the Russian establishment, they are in a state of war for over a 100 years. What the war looks like, just takes different shape over the periods. It’s all about spheres of influence:

make Volt (at least in Belgium) a mature political party.

I do think there’s space in the Belgian political landscape for a party in the style of the Dutch D66 and perhaps Volt could play that role, but today I had the impression they’re not ready yet. I’m curious to see how they will evolve.

🧵6/6

I already knew that they are pro-European and federalist, and asked today about how they are placed opposed to different parties. That’s still work in progress apparently. Many topics and policy domains don’t have a clear vision yet, it seems. Interesting discussion, but much work to be done to

🧵5

Quite a lively debate about citizens’ assemblies and sortition. Us non-Volt people seemed to support it more than the Volt people.

Impression: in Belgium Volt is still small and didn’t pass the 5% threshold to be elected, but in NL it’s bigger and it already exists since 2017.

🧵4

Then an interesting talk by @alemanno.bsky.social, incl about how national interests are taking over the #EU level and how we need to push back. True that Volt makes exactly that their main issue.

To end, a debate about democratic innovation.

🧵3

gov and judges shouldn’t ignore judgements or be sanctioned. Ignoring the courts is on the rise…

Tracey D’Afters, Volt’s only elected official in Belgium (city council Tervuren) also spoke about how she seeks to speak with more citizens to address their concerns.

🧵2

That’s not realistic in the short term. I’d rather see British BAE weapons than American Lockheed Martin’s.

Is Euroclear’s 250 billion not much larger than what other countries hold?
It’s clear that De Wever has taken over Euroclear’s views since they will stress legal protection, breach of international law and the need for an impeccable reputation for trust to remain in the financial markets.

I think you forgot about Ukraine. We don’t have the means to support Ukraine without US help.
Then Switzerland stood up and got 39% tariffs, China has rare earth minerals. US services are difficult to use as leverage b/c we depend on them. Try to picture Europe without access to Microsoft and AWS.

Dankjewel! Dit gaat me zo aan het hart. Zolang we meegaan in het frame 'Israel versus de Palestijnen' zullen Hamas en Netanyahu altijd winnen.