Reinier van Lanschot | |
|---|---|
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| Co-President of Volt Europa | |
| In office October 2019 – June 2023 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 7 September 1989 Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Political party | Volt (since 2018) Volt Netherlands |
| Residence | Maastricht |
| Education | Bachelor's and Master's degree degree in law |
| Alma mater | University of Utrecht University of Amsterdam |
Reinier van Lanschot (born 7 September 1989) is a Dutch politician and Volt Netherlands' top candidate for the 2024 European Parliament election. In 2018, he co-founded Volt Netherlands with Laurens Dassen and served as its chairman during the party's first year.[1] He was the party's top candidate for the European Parliament in the 2019 election. Van Lanschot was elected to the co-presidency of Volt Europa (together with Valerie Sternberg of Volt Germany) at the 2019 General Assembly in Sofia,[2] and re-elected for a second mandate (together with Francesca Romana D'Antuono of Volt Italy) at the 2021 Lisbon General Assembly.[3]
Van Lanschot grew up in Haarlem and studied law first at the University of Utrecht (2008 to 2013) and later at the University of Amsterdam (2013 to 2014), where he obtained a Master's degree.[4] After graduating, he first started working for a start-up offering innovative legal services. He then worked for Ahold Delhaize as a manager, managed a supermarket in Lelystad and was responsible for the sale of breakfast products in the retail department of Albert Heijn.[5][6]
When he was preparing the foundation of Volt Nederland in February 2018, he quit his job to focus on party work.[7][8] Since then, he has been working for the national and European Volt association. Since 2018, van Lanschot has been a trained community organiser and a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School.[4]
Together with a few others, van Lanschot founded the party Volt Nederland, the Dutch section of Volt Europa, in Utrecht on 23 June 2018 and was elected as the party's first leader.[9][10] In doing so, rising nationalism, climate protection and a lack of humane migration policies motivated him to get involved politically.[11]
In the European Parliament elections on 23 May 2019, he was the top candidate and list leader of the Dutch chapter of Volt.[12][13] When he was elected list leader, he stepped down as Volt chair in order to balance leadership roles within the party.[14] However, he fell short of entering parliament with 1.9% of the electoral vote.[15] During the campaign, he criticised the lack of leaders in Brussels and a constant focus on national interests instead of common European ones.[14] For the Dutch parliamentary election 2021, Lanschot was elected as a Lijstduwer on position 28 of the list.[16]
He is once again the lead candidate for Volt in the Netherlands in the 2024 European elections.[17]
On 13 October 2019, he was elected co-president of the European federation with Valerie Sternberg-Irvani, which he has led since.[2] Together with Francesca Romana D'Antuono, he was re-elected at the general assembly of Volt Europa in Lisbon.[3]
In a guest article in October 2021, van Lanschot, together with Francesca Romana D'Antuono, advocated the establishment of a permanent EU armed corps that could be deployed quickly and autonomously in crises and criticised the slow decision-making and complicated existing processes.[18]
In regards to the European Union (EU), Van Lanschot has declared that he agrees with the views of Eurosceptics but that instead of destroying the EU he wants to improve it by making it more transparent, democratic and social.[19] Van Lanschot claims that Brexit and the recent spike in popularity of Thierry Baudet have strengthened the party.[19] He and his party also believe in the cause of environmentalism.[20]
On 19 December 2018, Van Lanschot and Dassen were named "EuroNederlander of the Year" by the European Movement Netherlands.[21]
On 23 January 2019, Van Lanschot was selected as one of Elsevier weekly magazine's "30 under 30" talents.[22]
