When politicians visit the Bundeswehr (it’s also about these pictures)

Standing still and eyes straight: Cem Özdemir, Federal Minister of Agriculture and First Lieutenant, is visiting the Bundeswehr! wait a minute, lieutenant? “Özdemir is enough”, when he did an internship at the Munster site and was temporarily awarded the rank. In the meantime, Mr. Özdemir is a minister, but then as now, he is a green man in a Bundeswehr uniform.

No contradiction, says Özdemir, who has been taking part in a four-day military exercise since Wednesday, incidentally as the first federal minister in 20 years. It’s about democracy, and “it doesn’t defend itself”. “The Bundeswehr is needed for that, but we also need all of us as civilians who know what we have in the Bundeswehr.”

It spoke: Özdemir, lieutenant in the reserve (again on a temporary basis), but also the politician Özdemir, who obviously also counts a message among his equipment in addition to a beret. And with strong images, these can now be transported visibly better.

“As a member of parliament, I decide on mandates for Bundeswehr operations. It’s about existential issues, about life and death. That’s an enormous responsibility. I thought it was good to get a deeper insight into the work of the troops,” Özdemir said before four years. At the time, the then member of the Bundestag was concerned about what was happening in Syria, today in particular Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Little should therefore have changed in the embassy.

In any case, it is certain that Özdemir is not the first and only politician who, despite subordinates to non-experts, has served as a fan on site – and thus sent a message, sometimes on his own behalf, or set an example. matter of opinion. One or the other is not necessarily mutually exclusive. It is also certain that the pictures will stick – as this photo series also proves.