It is quite rare to find ministers among the politicians who share my memes on social media; Baiba Braže, incumbent Latvian minister of foreign affairs (MFA) and former ambassador, is one of them, a sign that she has some sense of humor and a very direct communication style.
Kaja Kallas has been high on my list of cool people to meet for a couple of years. Not only did she inspire lots of memes, but she also retweeted some of them when she was Prime Minister of Estonia. It felt very natural to talk to her: she has a very direct communication style and a great sense of humour, as the genuine and colorful pictures on her social media accounts show. I am happy to share with you some excerpts of our conversation, offering a sneak peek of her life and the changes Estonia went through in the last decades.
Defence and Space are very hot topics these days; at EU level they are energetically managed by Andrius Kubilius, a sixty-eight years old physicist and former Prime Minister of Lithuania. I had the pleasure to sit down with him and talk about his life and experiences.
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.
“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.
Mr. Schmit goes to Europe – a beer with the Socialists’ lead candidate
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.
