News
17.06.2019

Hertie School graduate elected to European Parliament

Damian Boeselager is co-founder and spitzenkandidat of new pan-European party VOLT.

After helping found the grassroots, pan-European party VOLT during his studies at the Hertie School, Damian Boeselager has made it into the European Parliament in elections last week. The 2018 graduate of the Master of Public Policy programme started the party with two friends from France and Italy and was its German spitzenkandidat (EU-parliament lingo for lead candidate) in the race for one of the 751 seats in the European legislature.

Volt Europa ran candidates in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. Elections are held nationally, so Boeselager ran as the candidate for VOLT Germany, although the party’s platform is designed to represent Europeans across national borders. VOLT is currently working on forming an alliance with other parties in the newly constituted parliament.

“I feel excited for what’s to come, prepared to overcome what lies ahead, and mostly extremely thankful for those who have given us their trust and support,” Boeselager said in a statement. “We won’t let far-right party voices drown out those that have brought our continent peace and prosperity.

Boeselager is a graduate of the Hertie School’s dual degree programme with the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University.

Read or listen to an interview with Damian Boeselager on German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk from 8 June 2019.

Read an interview with Damian Boeselager in our student magazine The Governance Post.