She didn’t show up, but Gundogan certainly dominated the meeting at Desmet Studios in Amsterdam, where about 100 Volt members gathered – mostly in their twenties and thirties in purple sweaters and draped in European flags. This is evident from the mere fact that alcohol was served. There were no alcoholic drinks on the previous results evening in The Hague, according to the board to prevent Gundogan from drinking too much and causing problems.
It is one of the allegations against Gundogan, who was suddenly suspended by the board on February 13. The party received 13 reports of transgressive behavior by Gundogan, ranging from beatings to the buttocks to angry outbursts at direct employees. The number two of the party was thrown out of the parliamentary faction, but the judge said the board should not have taken such drastic steps.
‘Immediately gone’
Many conversations during election night are about Gundogan’s behavior. “I have my own company and if an employee of mine did this, she would immediately be a loser,” says a volunteer in a purple sweater. “To be honest, I struggled to charge myself for the campaign, and I’m still a donor.”
The mud-slinging also radiated on candidates for the municipal elections, several Volt members acknowledge. “A bump in the road”, as Cankut Ercan, who is eligible for Volt in Zwolle, calls the soap around Gündogan. “There are people on the street who you notice are doubting their vote, and then of course this issue does not help. We had to hope that voters mean it when they said: what happens in The Hague is in The Hague, but you are local.”
That picture seems to be correct, because the first results brought pretty good news for the party that is active in 29 European countries. According to exit polls, Volt in Zwolle and Rotterdam will win one and two seats on the council, messages that were received by Volt supporters in Amsterdam with clapping and cheering. Some English-speaking spectators don’t seem to understand why.
‘Low turnout helps’
“At least we have a few,” said a board member, who thinks Volt’s low turnout may have helped. It is by no means a bad performance for a new party, which also mainly focused on seats in the city council of Amsterdam.
Volt participated in ten cities. Initially, the party wanted to participate in about 25 places, but in many municipalities the candidates did not meet the strict ‘equality requirements’ that Volt sets. One of the party’s principles is that the electoral lists should consist of half men and half women. Finding such a mix was therefore only possible in ten cases.
After the publicity nightmare of the past few weeks, the question remains how the party should proceed. For the time being, Gundogan does not want to withdraw her libel and slander charges against Volt and the public quarrel seems to continue.
Party leader Laurens Dassen does not want to say much about his competitor, but is combative after hearing the first results: “People said that we would never succeed in founding a European party and certainly not in the House of Representatives. I don’t let setbacks stop me.”