What made you join the green movement?
After finishing school, I spent a year as a volunteer in a small mountain village in Mexico. This period greatly politicized me: I saw poverty, suppression of women, impunity and huge environmental problems. All on the doorstep of the richest country in the world, the US, which showed me how much global injustice there still is, but also how much you can achieve through international solidarity and cooperation. This motive led me to join the Green movement, but also inspired me to choose my professional career: working on trade and development for Ska Keller in her first parliamentary term, working for the German foreign ministry, for the United Nations and development NGOs.
Why EU politics?
Not surprisingly, my main goals for the European Parliament are to make fair trade the standard and not the exception. Due diligence along the supply chain will help improve the living conditions and the environment for millions of people in developing countries. Trade deals don’t need more protection for multinational investors, but for workers and the environment. Public procurement needs to work towards implementing the Sustainable Development Goals. These challenges are hard to address at a national level only, so we have to work on them together in Europe. That is why I have been active in European politics for a long time within the Greens: for example, for a year as a delegate to the European Green Party and as a co-chair of the German Greens’ working group on Europe.
What do you want to fight for in the European Parliament?
My constituency is Saxony, where the right wing is extremely strong. I not only want to work for more international justice in the European Parliament, but I also want to better explain European integration, the benefits of the EU to people in that region and help to strengthen all those who are active in the fight for an open society.