Think globally, act locally.   Think European, act locally.

These are the slogans that we often repeat in Volt while running for local elections. Still, too many times, voters ask: “why is a European party running for municipal elections in the first place?”

 In short, the answer is in our slogan: each issue that keeps us awake at night is connected to the broader society, to the lives of the people next to us. However, it is not easy to find the words to describe all this. That’s why we chose to let people feel how each other's stories are connected and in need of global, and European, answers.

This is precisely what we did in Brussels. First and foremost, when Alberto, Barbara andMauro were running in three different municipalities, we reached out to and met with more than 2000 Italians living in the heart of Europe and managed to keep the relation with them even after the vote. Afterwards, just two days after the local vote in Belgium, we used Eurosense – Volt’s tool aimed at collecting stories from people and listening to their concerns in a peculiar way – as a workshop. Francesca Romana D’Antuono, co-president of Volt Europa, and Alberto Spatola, co-lead of the Italians Abroad for Volt Italia, moderated the event.

The Eurosense interviews are usually one-to-one, but with Italians living in Brussels we tried to sit all in the same room, let each participant jot down their story and answers to the Eurosense questionnaire together. Along the way we shared our stories, even if it was not mandatory, and we reflected on their implications for us and for the wider community. Many patterns were revealed: expats’ lives are less glamorous than what might appear on the surface or on social media.

After sharing our stories, we felt even more the obstacles we have while living abroad: different languages, competitive and exploitative job market, and a complicated and expensive housing market. Still, the good news is that we managed to translate what we felt into a call to action, a call to connect the struggle of Italians abroad with other communities, including bridging with the locals. A city, a community that can welcome people from different countries and walks of life is a more liveable city, that works better for all. Brussels can and should be like that.

As Volters in Belgium, after our Eurosense session, we decided to do just that. The noisy boiler at Nicola’s home, the bad-paid internship in which Giovanna is stuck, and so on... These are not just personal issues, they must be addressed with global answers

and actions.

Volt, a party of Europeans, is the perfect place to bring and share your story. We will not answer with a pre-cooked ideological answer, we will exchange and brainstorming until we find the right path to walk together to achieve a solution!

Alberto Spatola, Alessia Ruta, Barbara Polin, Francesca Romana D’Antuono

Instagram Reel: https://www.instagram.com/francescaromana_dantuono/reel/DFXNapnsuvt/