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Freedom Team Interview
Internship While the Country Changes: Göran Ladewig in Focus

4.1 Minutes
User
  Göran Ladewig
Intern Göran Ladewig
© Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, East and Southeast Europe

A time of learning, protests, and white cheese: Get to know our intern Göran Ladewig, who spent three months at the FNF Regional Office for East and Southeast Europe in Sofia.

From a German perspective, Southeast Europe seems almost like a blind spot. The media isn’t covering the area much, people barely travel to the region. My first attempt to lift the curtain was in 2022, when two friends and I discovered Romania by train. I literally fell in love with the country: beautiful landscapes, extremely kind people telling interesting stories about their lives, which they often lead in harder conditions than I’m used to it. That amazed me more than once. As a result, the plan matured in my mind to get closer to the Balkan region one day. Since I don’t speak any local language, the FNF turned out to be the ideal gateway to access the country, its people and its politics.

A Fallen Government, a Resigned President, a National Campaign

Completely unexpected, my stay coincided with the most exciting period in Bulgarian politics in years. Just a week after my arrival in mid-November 2025, masses of people started to gather on the streets, demanding the government to withdraw the budget bill. Over time, the folks’ anger focused more and more on corruption in general. A few weeks and hundreds of thousands of protesters later, the government resigned, snap elections expected. And me? Working at FNF’s office in Sofia centre, living just a few minutes’ walk away, I was really in a perfect position to observe this dynamic situation—explained to me and analysed by our political experts at FNF. Yes, the weather is cold and sometimes harsh out there during winter times; nevertheless, I couldn’t have chosen a better time to stay here. Not to mention the president’s resignation and the beginning election campaign.

Protests in Sofia
© Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, East and Southeast Europe

A Lot to Learn

Fighting for political change is something I often deal with in my internship. Civic activism and communication strategies are important topics in my work for the FNF office’s communications department. I’m regularly writing online articles, texting social media posts, and reviewing video formats, that relate to these fields. Back home in Germany, I’ve been working for several years as a journalist for the public broadcast service NDR. Therefore, it makes sense to contribute to communications at FNF. Especially in terms of content creation for social media, there is a lot to learn for me with regard to my future career in journalism. Furthermore, I take part in event organisation and drink some coffee for free. All in all: a typical win-win situation.

Know Where We Came From

Bulgaria’s political situation today and its reasons in the socialist history remind me of my own family background: it’s a bit crazy to realise, but only eleven years before my birth, my home city in the northeast of Germany was part of another state, the former GDR. A state where I wouldn’t have been able to practice my job as a journalist freely. A state, where I would have been able to travel to Bulgaria (which shouldn’t be underestimated!), but not to most other parts of the world. Unbelievable, what conditions my parents faced back then. From today’s perspective, I couldn’t stand this situation because I feel as a very independent-minded (and sometimes even a bit stubborn, I guess) person. Especially seeing all the authoritarian developments across Europe and the rest of the world nowadays, I really appreciate a life in freedom. It’s worth it to defend it. Bulgaria is an encouraging blueprint these days!

The End: Some Fun Facts About Me

  • Although it is similar to Goran and despite the umlaut, my first name is neither Slavic nor Turkish. Göran is a Swedish name of the boomer generation. Fortunately, it’s not known at all in Germany so that nobody is joking. Funny: Even a Turk was asking me one day, whether my name is Turkish.
  • I love hiking, so Sofia is the perfect place with its local mountain Vitosha just a few kilometres away. Snow at its top and sunny days make it an amazing leisure activity to go there.
  • I eat mostly vegetarian. Talking to Bulgarians, this fact leads very regularly to the question how I survive in this meat-loving country. A legitimate question. The answer consists of a lot of white cheese.