Inspired by a discussion on the news portal tagesschau.de and by Conor Slowey, I wrote an email to the minister, trying to give support. What was I thinking? Maybe my email is one of tens of thousands that arrive in these days. Maybe not. Maybe the foreign minister does not get a lot of popular feedback, apart from newspaper comments and articles. And these, as we all know, come from journalists in the high political echelons that are remote from the common people. So I thought a little popular feedback might be a good think. Never expected to get a reply. But today it came, certainly written by his deputy staff rather than himself.
Dear Mr Feldhof,
thank you for your email on 6 December 2009 and for the support that you expressed. I was very happy to receive it.
As the German Foreign Minister, I have to represent the interests of our country. One of them is to increase relations with our neighbors. To me personally, it is an important point to project the profound relation that Germany has with its western neighbors to Poland as well. ... I will continue to support this direction.
Again, thank you for your email and your support. Personally, all the best to you.
Guido Westerwelle
(my translation)
It doesn't sound like a standard answer they send to all their respondents, does it?
I believe that everybody with the courage to voice his opinion can reach someone in political life. We just have to start writing emails.
