Robin Mesarosch visits the Stetten School Centre

The 31-year-old SPD member of parliament is a guest at a school every week and devotes his time to talking to the pupils about current issues in politics such as creating social justice and commitment to climate protection. He is responsible for the Zollernalb-Sigmaringen constituency and says he spends 20 weeks a year in Berlin to pursue his work as a politician.

During his visit to the Stetten School Centre today, the passionate poetry slammer faced a colourful bouquet of topics that the learning partners of learning groups 9 and 10 had previously prepared in a catalogue of questions.

"Discussing with young people is enriching for me," Mesarosch explained. "They are often extremely interested in political issues without being stuck to a fixed position. They are usually concerned with the matter at hand in the exchange, and that makes for a fruitful discussion."

The fact that some seemingly simple questions are difficult to answer, even for politicians, was an important experience for the learning partners: "You don't always have an idea of how complicated the connections are," sums up Vanessa Bosch from class 10.2. For example, when it comes to the legalisation of cannabis: In response to the students' question, Mesarosch outlined in broad outline which individual regulations would have to be considered and why such a decision would always entail further conflicts of interest.

The two graduating classes of the Stetten School Centre impressed Mesarosch with their keen interest in his work and also in the attitudes he holds with regard to socially relevant issues: social media, his position on the Ukraine war, the minimum wage, pensions and corruption in other countries were just some of the many areas on which the learning partners asked for information.

The fact that a politician from faraway Berlin is nevertheless rooted in the region and lives in a completely unpretentious manner made Mesarosch likeable for the learning partners.
"What car do you drive?" someone wants to know. "An Opel Astra," smiles the native Swabian, who describes himself on his homepage with a wink as a "village child".

Talking about his passion for his work, he says he has the ambition to take care of all requests that reach him from the population. In today's talks, he affirms that he is currently working to ensure that the basic child allowance does not fall victim to government austerity measures.