15-minute visit sessions in which students can discuss, in small groups, with four counselors on topics of interest to them. The third class DM of the Walther von der Vogelweide high school in Bolzano was the first to choose the new “speed dating” visit format, i.e. an exchange with councilors of the Provincial Council of Bolzano.
“It’s nice to talk directly with politicians, discuss things personally, ask concrete questions: we have the impression that we can achieve more”: thus Anna And Franziska comment on their participation in the first speed dating of the Provincial Council of Bolzano. This is a new visit format, which allows interested classes to choose the council groups with which to discuss, and then directly ask a representative of those groups questions about what interests or concerns them.
“This type of discussion with councilors and councillors”, comments the president of the Council of the Autonomous Province Arnold Schuler“is one of the different types of visits that the Council offers to schools, with the aim of bringing young men and women closer to politics and making them aware of what those who represent them at provincial level actually do”.
They were the first counselors to have a quick face-to-face meeting with students Harald Stauder (SVP), Franz Ploner (Team K), Hannes Rabensteiner (Süd-Tiroler Freiheit) e Madeleine Rohrer (Green group): each of them, sitting at a table, met 4 times with small groups of 2 or 3 students, who moved from station to station every quarter of an hour. It was the young people who proposed the topics for discussion, ranging from public transport, in particular school transport, to climate protection – also in the field of construction or purchasing choices, from the cost of housing, which if contained would favor the return of young graduates abroad, to suicide, a topic which – the young people said – needs to be talked about without taboos.
“Direct discussion with young people always brings new knowledge and perspectives”, is the comment of Stauder at the end of the meeting: “These are important points of view for us politicians who work for the future”. “I understood that young people expect concrete answers from politicians to the most burning issues of South Tyrolean society,” he reports F. Ploner: “I can only admire their openness, their political interest and their socio-ecological considerations.” Second Rohrer, “the girls were very prepared and had many questions: 15 minutes wasn’t enough. However, the discussion allowed us to make them understand, who see us as being so distant, that we are instead reactive to their proposals if they put pressure on us.” For Rabensteiner, “it was interesting to see which issues are of interest to young people, and to see that these are topics already considered by politics, which is therefore not so distant from the people”. The discussion ended with an open debate on the topics of interest, during which the message was conveyed to the young people that their participation is important, as well as the possibility they have of raising awareness among the adults around them on crucial issues.
