2) Strasbourg

Life on the train

Traveling by train is part of my day to day life. Thanks to the expansion of the train system, I can make it – if everything works out and there are no delays – in five or six hours from the middle of Berlin to the Ulm central station. Going back and forth two or three times a month, the hours add up.

You’re thinking, yeah, cool! Finally time to watch netflix, read, catch up on sleep. For me this is actually a very intense work time: finally time to read the news in peace, do email, dig into topics, tweet (media is a really important part of my job, of course you all want to know what I’m up to all day, right?), and take phone calls (I actually really hate this. I don’t want to include those near me in my conversations, or be included in theirs, which isn’t out of the question). Also very important: fully planning out my calendar…actually, that one I can forget. Before I moved to the ministry, two people worked exclusively to wrangle all of my appointments, from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m., but now it’s four people! I gave up the fight to self-determine the organization of my working life when I crossed the threshold of the ministry. But it’s tough that there’s no longer even time left for my visits to my favorite hair stylist. Today, back in transit, during my train ride I got through eighty emails, had four phone calls (yes, unfortunately, exceptions prove the rule), and now I actually wanted to read a few texts, when I remembered my diary

Strasbourg

What was special in the last few days? What have I experienced? Definitely my visit to beautiful Strasbourg. I was able to represent Germany on behalf of my minister Anne Spiegel at the EU Conference of Youth Ministers in Strasbourg. Me. Born in Turkey. Raised in Bavaria. Working in Berlin. Representing Germany. My first group photo.

“Familyphoto”. Photo: Philippe Devernay / MENJS

And at dinner I was also able to make conversation with what was left of my school French! Many thanks to my old French teacher, Mr. Plappert, who never gave up on me! Apparently it wasn’t all in vain!

“The European Union ministers responsible for youth and education met in Strasbourg on January 27th. They exchanged views with each other on how the engagement of young people on the topic of sustainability can be included and better taken into account when shaping politics. France hosted the informal meeting. The country currently holds the EU Council Presidency. For Germany, the Parliamentary State Secretary for the Federal Ministry of Youth, Ekin Deligöz, took part”

That’s the announcement on the ministry’s website. In my heart: WOW….

At the conference I met really great, interesting people, like Sarah El Haïry, the French Kamala Harris. We’ll hear more from her. She is the hope of many from the Maghreb in France and – I can call her this – a wonderful friend. We hit it off immediately.

v.l.n.r.: Jean-Michel Blanquer, Französischer Minister für Erziehung, Jugend und Sport, Ekin Deligöz, Sarah El HaÏry, Französische Staatssekretärin für Jugend. Foto: Philippe Devernay / MENJS

Anyway, the Franco-German friendship is alive! Maybe one shouldn’t say this, but I felt I was given somewhat favored treatment. I got to stand at the front of the group photo and, if Corona had allowed it, might have been hugged several times. Apparently my predecessors didn’t show themselves very often.
Many other people responded to my speech. No wonder, given that it was about ecological sustainability and the rights of future generations. And one sentence from the speech shouldn’t be missed: “We have only borrowed the earth from our children.“!

And how did I get to Strasbourg? Naturally, by train…