“Really? What’s wrong with you? How can you like politics at such a young age?” That’s the response I receive from many people when I’m talking about my hobbies. A lot of people think that politics has not an impact on us anyway and it is just something for old people and upper layer.
When I hear that, I always use this quote from Sir Winston Churchill to argue with them, “Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.“ And that applies to everyone in our society, doesn’t matter what colour, sex, religion, age,… you have.
My name is Samet Meseli, I’m 17 years old and I have been at “START” for 2 years now. At “START” I saw, for the first time in my life, that there are people at my age who want to make a difference. I realized how important it is to show commitment and do something for the society. So where can you do more for the society than in politics? It affects everything we do in our live and is the driving force in how we live.
So I have joined the youth organization of the “Austrian’s People Party” and learned how valuable democracy and freedom is. Currently I’m attending the academy of my party where we learn about rhetoric, the parties history and its political content. Moreover, once in a month, we have a meeting with the whole party where we regularly talk about important and current topics and want to change and give new ideas if something is not convenient for us.
One current topic is that we for example want to extend our shopping mall. Furthermore, also the refugee crisis plays a big role in our program. We want them to integrate themselves in our society and so we are searching for solutions how we could give them more opportunities here in Vorarlberg. Our youth organization always needs new members and because of that I sometimes distribute flyers at my school or on the streets.
So I always have the feeling that I can create a better life together in society and that is what makes me love politics. It is not just a hobby but it is our civil duty to care and follow politics.
I’m not sure if I’m going to be a politician one day but I exactly know that I won’t never stop to engage myself in politics. Especially, I want to show young people that while you meet new people, learn how politics affects your life and do something great for the society you can also have a lot of fun and that politics can also be your hobby, doesn’t matter how young you are.