Volt Portugal
Volt Portugal is a progressive and Eurofederalist party in Portugal. It is affiliated with Volt Europa and was officially registered in June 2020 as the 25th party in the country. Volt has contested several local elections and participated in the 2022 national parliamentary elections. Policies After the founding of the parent organisation, Volt Europe, the "5+1 Challenges" were adopted, which define the fundamental challenges that the party sees. This was followed by the European policy document Mapping of Policies, which forms the basis for the creation of all of Volt's programmes. Since then, several documents have been added to the Mapping of Policies. Together with the Mapping of Policies, these thematically limited documents form the so-called Policy Portfolio, from which all national, regional and local programmes are derived. On 18 December 2021, the party presented its election manifesto for the 2022 parliamentary elections. Program In its program for the 2022 general election, Volt proposes electoral reform, the creation of administrative regions in Portugal to put more focus on the development of Portugal's interior, which the party says has been forgotten, and to hold a referendum on this. Social policy and culture In the area of health care, the party advocates the reduction of waiting lists and criticises the state of the National Health Service, low salaries and the slipping to minimum wage levels of employees and lack of rest days despite high workloads. The party advocates the legalization of prostitution, soft drug trafficking, passive euthanasia, and assisted suicide. Altruistic surrogacy arrangements are also to be legalised, and the extent to which the black market can be combated by legalising surrogacy arrangements of a commercial nature is to be investigated. The party is in favour of equal rights for men and women with regard to the right of abortion. The party advocates equality in parental leave and free crèches and kindergartens. Investment in better training for police forces should be increased, ethnic profiling and police violence should be ended. Volt wants to improve culture and access for young people by introducing and awarding culture vouchers worth €200. Jewish life in Portugal and the Sephardic community should be supported and the application process for Portuguese citizenship of the Diaspora should be made more transparent. The introduction of an unconditional basic income is to be explored. Climate policy Volt sees climate protection as one of the most urgent challenges and wants to work towards the goal of decarbonising the energy supply in Portugal and the EU by 2035 and achieving carbon neutrality for the whole of Portugal by 2040. In order to combat climate change, Volt advocates the abolition of subsidies for fossil fuels and the inclusion of nuclear power in the European Union's green taxonomy. Volt also sees the expansion of rail infrastructure and combating desertification in Portugal as an important element of climate policy in this context. In addition, investments will be made in the energy efficiency of houses to combat climate change and increase the safety of people in situations