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The Journal-team looks back at 2021 - Pascal Steinwachs is up next. The past twelve months have been exciting, challenging and enriching, and they also mark our first digital birthday. To celebrate the occasion, each team member has chosen the piece whose research or production had the biggest impact on them in 2021.
The retrospective 2021 is provided to you free of charge. If you want to support our team, subscribe!
Who would have thought that? My first time immediately was with the leader of a Christian Socialist party.
However, my first time was not quite virginal, as I had done it many, many, many times before, oh no, several thousand, yes, most probably even tens of thousands of times.
No, it's not what you think, dear gentlemen, gentlewoman and everyone in between (this whole "inclusive language" thing really has become second nature to me, believe it or not): I'm talking about writing an article, that is, my first article (well, I had already put together a first op-ed in the new XXL format a few days before), my first interview for the new digital Journal, which is no longer quite so new, but still very much digital.
Digital is much better than analogue, because you can print out digital articles – and that's good for the printer cartridge, too, because it doesn't dry out – and read them at home or wherever you like. Of course, you can also photograph them and send them as attachments to your colleagues via WhatsApp, but I digress …
What I actually wanted to say: My first interview for the digital Journal was with CSV President Frank Engel.
"This whole 'inclusive language' thing, dear gentlemen, gentlewoman and everyone in between, really has become second nature to me, believe it or not."
I remember it like it was yesterday: It was a sunny day. The pigeons on the window in front of the president's office were cooing. The cathedral bells were ringing in the background. A friendly lady – it could also have been a gentleman – brought us a coffee, unfortunately without pastries. Engel was wearing a grey jacket and a white shirt. I was wearing a black shirt and no jacket. I had many questions. He had even more answers. Afterwards, we circled around the president's desk like friends, but I digress again …
So: My first time with Engel (at least in this constellation) was unfortunately also the last time in this case, because the next time I saw Frank Engel, he was already no longer what he had been before but presumably would still like to be, if there hadn't been these people who right from the start didn't want to come to terms with what Engel had become – probably because they themselves wanted to what Engel was, but without success.
Shortly after my interview with Engel, he resigned as party president because of the so-called circle of friends affair, after the friend-enemy-party friend-thing had proven true once again.
Since then, the CSV is still looking for a new strong man or, why not, a strong woman who knows how to tame the completely divided bunch to some extent. At the moment, however, I would only see Luc Frieden in this role, the eternal Dauphin of Jean-Claude Juncker, who, after not becoming Dauphin, has sulkily and – allegedly – definitely retired from politics, but what does definitely mean in politics.
And Frank Engel, well he just might end up a member of the Luxembourg Pirate Party. He would not lack in experience with buccaneering …
PS: There was indeed a real first time for us, sorry, for me. This is the first time that we, who normally write about ourselves in the third person, have written an article in the first person. It feels kind of weird, and it won't happen again. Promise …
