The idea to found the Volt party was born over lunch in a Chinese restaurant in New York in 2016. It was triggered by Brexit, the election of Donald Trump as US president and the rise of right-wing populism in Europe. „These events shook my basic trust that history always moves in the direction of progress“, recalls Damian Boeselager. Together with Italian Andrea Venzon and Frenchwoman Colombe Cahen-Salvador, he discussed what they could do to counter the anti-democratic tendencies.