In my continuous effort to maintain a certain inter-institutional balance, I had the pleasure to interview the former (and youngest) European Commissioner, and now Member of the European Parliament, Virginijus Sinkevičius. What came out is a long, yet very inspiring, net zero to hero story.
It is the first time I venture out of my Commission comfort zone, interviewing a truly elected politician from the European Parliament. In these difficult times, when popular support is needed to take important decisions, a good Director-General knows he must get closer to those who are close to the people. And I am glad to start with Mārtiņš Staķis, manager, coffee expert, TV host, church treasurer, mayor of Riga and Member of the European Parliament.
At Colours of Ostrava, one of Czechia’s biggest culture and music festivals, I had the pleasure to meet and interview Martin Dvořák, the Czech Minister of EU affairs over a Czech beer and Belgian fries. As a passionate traveler, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to ask him about his life and his many missions abroad.
Among the many things I don’t understand of social media there is the need of people to comment on anything. Why engaging in virtual written fights with strangers that will surely misunderstand you? Which pleasure does it give you to insult the author of a post? And, most importantly, where do you find the time to do all that?
I recently published a reel featuring the not-so-sweet encounter between the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and France’s President Emmanuel Macron. This video was played more than 7M times, reaching more than 3M accounts, for a total view time of 11K hours (500 days). It received 98K likes and more than 3K comments.
Now, you would think this is great news, right? Wrong, my phone was constantly buzzing with notifications and I had to read all the idiotic comments, trying to remove the most racist ones. Here a summary of what people have said, just to show how disappointing mankind can be:
“I’m thirty-four and I am exhausted”, said Robin, who has been following the seventy-year-old Commissioner and lead candidate Nicolas Schmit in his campaign. “Yesterday we were in Portugal, today we are in Belgium, tomorrow we will be in Luxembourg, then Italy, Spain and Croatia”. I am happy Schmit found some time in his busy agenda to answer a few questions and listen to my meme speech.
“P. S. Whether you accept it or not, don’t worry: I will not ask Charles Michel for a rebound interview”. This is the last line of the diplomatic email I sent on the 24th of November 2023 to test if there was a possibility to interview the President of the European Commission.
Of the many politicians I follow online, no one communicates as clearly and effectively as the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Gabrielius Landsbergis. I started following him with interest during the diplomatic tensions between Lithuania and China in 2021; the appreciation was mutual, as he also retweeted some of my memes; this fact particularly impressed my Lithuanian friends, even those that didn’t vote for his party: “He is cool, his whole family is cool”.
Interviewing Vice-President Margaritis Schinas, the Midday Matador, the Father-of-us-all DG COMMers, the EU’s favorite son… I didn’t think I could be up to the challenge, he is too good to let anything controversial slip. Nevertheless, after years of online interactions and memes, I gathered up my courage, contacted his communication advisor Vangelis Demiris and set up a meeting.
It is with a certain apprehension that I follow the social media account of Janez Lenarčič, Commissioner for Crisis Management: I know that every time he tweets chances are there’s been a catastrophe somewhere in the world.
In this page we collect all the issues of EUROPOLITAN, the EU Bubble’s fictional fashion magazine which is published every year on Valentine’s Day. Special thanks to LM, AH, MT, RAS and RJ for helping the creative process.
In this issue:
In this issue
