Madam Minister, when I read what you said in the past few months, I thought: Pretty tough for an SPD politician.

Justus Bender

Editor in the politics of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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It is my job as Federal Minister of the Interior to go where it hurts.

As a domestic politician, you are quickly perceived as tougher than others.

Those are just tougher issues.

I have a clear attitude and clear language.

Here are some headlines: Faeser wants fewer foreign preachers.

Faeser wants to curb irregular migration on the Balkan route.

Faeser wants to strengthen Frontex.

Faeser wants body cams for all police officers.

Faeser wants data retention.

Such interior ministers are often nicknamed "sheriff."

I am there to ensure the safety of the people in Germany.

That drives me day and night.

But I can't do that just by talking about prevention, important as it is to me.

It is about consistent action by the rule of law.

I have never made a secret of the fact that I am a pragmatic social democrat for whom security is a core social democratic issue.

In my political career, it was always understandable where I stand.

Beyond the factual issues, is there also a feeling of security created by clear language?

It's about doing the right thing.

And yes, inner security also has to do with subjective feelings.

For example, the illumination of paths and streets is also part of it.

I find it appalling that women and men feel so differently about security after dark.

Women often avoid public transport in the evenings and at night.

I clearly addressed this fact at the last conference of interior ministers: We need more security personnel in buses and trains, more police in public places and more video surveillance.

That must have caused irritation among the party left.

Sometimes there are questions: why did you put it that way now?

Sometimes it's just about having addressed one particular issue but not another.

When I talk about fighting Islamist terrorism at the Counter-Terrorism Center, I don't talk about right-wing extremism in the same breath just to show that I have both on my radar.

At the beginning of your term of office, you had a different impression.

They had published a guest article in a magazine called "Antifa".

That was before I was Minister.

But it became known when you became a minister.

In the guest article for an organization of people persecuted under National Socialism, I wrote about the threats that I received under the abbreviation "NSU 2.0".

Nobody criticized the content.

As the leader of the opposition in Hesse, I was able to choose the medium, but not as Interior Minister.

How would you describe your political style?

I want to make politics out of life.

I come from local politics and was a city councilor in Schwalbach am Taunus for a long time.

That shaped me because it's so immediate.

You don't make decisions based on the files, you go out to the people.

I worked night shifts with the police in Frankfurt's train station district and was there when a body was found.

That is hard.

Or I've worked one day each in a daycare, in a grocery store, in the hospital and in the hospice.

With these experiences, I make political decisions on a different basis.

Then I know the concerns of the people involved.

That's why I meet police and rescue workers so often now, go to offices, to refugee shelters, to border crossings.

Is it also about not behaving tactically?