When a social scientist goes to the Ministry of Agriculture

What sounds like the beginning of a joke describes the compulsory internship that Lena Frohn completed as part of her studies at RPTU. However, two inaccuracies are already apparent at the beginning of this joke; firstly, her Bachelor's degree in Social and Communication Sciences has not yet been completed. Secondly, the correct title of her six-week job is "Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food", or BMEL for short. But very few of the topics there can be started like the telling of a joke, as she writes in our student column.

"And what kind of doctor do you do?" I was asked during lunch in the canteen on one of my first days as an intern. Well. What do you answer when you're in the glorious seventh semester of a bachelor's degree that doesn't even remotely have anything to do with the field of study of any of the people at the table? It's best to tell the truth: "I'm studying social and communication sciences". I quickly got used to the skeptical looks and questions that followed this statement. Most of the people I dealt with had at least a Master's degree in agricultural sciences, biology, animal sciences or had studied law. For many, the term "communication sciences" could just as easily have come from a foreign language. However, when I subsequently explained that I was particularly interested in political communication and climate protection, the raised eyebrows usually lowered a little. However, working in a field outside of one's area of expertise is nothing unusual politically; the current Minister of Agriculture, Cem Özdemir, is after all a trained educator and yet his popularity ratings in the Ampel coalition are among the best.

The department in which I worked during my internship is responsible for climate protection, climate adaptation and water. Its tasks also include preparations for the 28th World Climate Conference, which took place this year from November 30 to December 12 in Dubai and has just come to an end. For me, this meant, for example, compiling CVs of the people with whom the Minister was expected to speak at COP 28 (Conference of the Parties). As you might imagine, the list was very long. All these many important people at the conference also had many important appointments. In a "How-to-COP-Workshop" of the Federal Foreign Office, which I was allowed to attend, one of the German negotiators there showed his schedule for the climate conference in Egypt in 2022; he came up with 137 daily points. I haven't counted how many events I picked out for the BMEL delegation that might be relevant to them. Who knows, I might never have finished counting.

My view of the climate conferences has definitely changed as a result of my look behind the scenes. It is undisputed that far too little is happening there from a climate activist perspective. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we are currently heading towards global warming of 4.4°C compared to the beginning of the 20th century. The expert council for climate issues has confirmed that the German government will still miss its climate targets in 2023. One climate conference follows the next and yet the phase-out of fossil fuels, which is so urgently needed in the near future, is nowhere in sight. Now one could debate whether this has anything to do with the fact that a country like the United Arab Emirates, whose economy is based on the export of oil, is taking over the presidency of the conference. I still think this is a very valid point. With such different ideas, it is nevertheless remarkable that the parties continue to talk to each other. The negotiations there are certainly no walk in the park and sometimes last well into the night. In my experience, it is by no means the case that the people who go to the COP don't care about the issue. But they've been doing it for a while and know how things work. In my view, it's understandable that they don't embark on the journey with a fire of euphoria and enthusiasm for change.

Regardless of the fact that the World Climate Conference was coming up, my time at the BMEL was politically exciting. Two weeks before the end of my internship, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the unused special funds that the government had borrowed to fight the coronavirus crisis could not be used for other purposes. The government's plan had been to spend the remaining money on the country's climate-friendly transformation in order to avoid having to incur further debt. This plan was now, to put it bluntly, in tatters. This problem particularly affects the Climate and Transformation Fund, for which the Climate Protection Division in the BMEL is also responsible. This was followed by a budget freeze ordered by the Ministry of Finance, including weeks of budget crisis. Discussions about this quickly filled the corridors, departmental meetings and canteen conversations. In meetings with outsiders, the first thing they asked you about was the current budget situation and how your own project would be affected. In short, the problem was on everyone's lips. So when I came home in those days, I was totally confused that nobody was talking about it. My friends had heard about the ruling, but even those who were interested in climate protection didn't seem to really understand what it meant. To be fair, I think I would have felt the same way if I hadn't been at the source. 

Above all, the internship made me realize that politics is a huge bubble. The topics that are discussed internally are usually completely different to those that are discussed externally. The way issues are discussed internally (very soberly but constructively) is also completely different from the way they are reported on, not to mention the discussions at the regulars' table. As I know from my studies, this has to do with media logic. Complex correlations simply don't fit into a short headline, especially not if it's supposed to make you want to read the corresponding article. Nevertheless, I think it is very short-sighted to blame the media exclusively. A lot of it also has to do with political education. If even people with a high school diploma don't know exactly how the Federal Chancellor is elected, how is a society supposed to understand complex rulings by the highest court on politically immensely important issues?

The internship has not only helped me in this respect. I now not only know that I want to work in politics, but also that I can do it. My desire to work in political communication and public relations has fortunately been strengthened by the internship. I still have to decide whether I want to do this in a party, a ministry or a non-governmental organization. Even though I will probably change it 20 or so times, it feels good to have a plan.  

Picture: private
Text: Lena Frohn

Bild: privat
Text: Lena Frohn