Colombe Cahen-Salvador is 24, and trained as a human rights lawyer. She fought & won cases for clients unjustly detained or sanctioned in Egypt & Sub-Saharan Africa. She loved her job and growing up that was what she'd always seen herself doing.
But then Brexit happened.
A French woman educated in England, Colombe had come to think of the UK as an integral part of both Europe and her life plans. But unlike most Europhile progressives her age, she didn't just end up writing a Facebook post about how democracy sucked when you lose and going back to her life, instead, she decided to do something about it.
And that something was Volt: the first progressive pan-European party. Fast forward a year and a half, and the movement groups over 20,000 members from 32 countries and is a registered political party in 12. 4,000 people commit at least 5 hours a week and over 100 have quit their jobs to focus solely on the campaign. Because not only is she the policy lead for Volt, Colombe is also leading Volt's French list into the European Parliamentary election, where they are looking to secure 25 seats.
In this episode, we cover Colombe's journey, her ambitions for Volt, what it's like to start & run a political party & her views of Europe.
