2024-07-16 18:15:17
The European Union is not boring if you help it with pranks. Fabio Mauri does it masterfully, judging by the response. Unknown to most people, the Italian ajták is behind the popular Twitter account DG MEME. In a big interview for Aktuálně.cz, he explains, among other things, what attracted him to Prime Minister Petr Fiala and why President Petr Pavel is the “coolest” Czech politician.
You’ve been entertaining social networks for six years as the author of the satirical DG MEME account. Why did you start it?
Because I was fed up with the way the European institutions talk to the people. It was in June 2018, as an external consultant, I sat in on a meeting of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communication (directorates general, DG, are similar to ministries – note ed.). Four hundred people were there discussing communication strategies for the European elections. About getting people to vote. It was absolutely devastating for me.
Why?
Because it looked like they never saw normal people on the street. As if they think that everyone out there speaks five languages, has a PhD from a prestigious university and can’t wait to build the European Union. After two hours I raised my hand and asked this slightly sarcastic question. And suddenly the whole room started laughing.
What was your question?
I would not like to publish it, after all it was only suitable for the given situation. The important thing is that I realized that those people knew as well as I did that what they were discussing was not going to work. But no one dared to say so. After the meeting, a number of officials came up to me and congratulated me. They said how brave I was. I couldn’t believe my ears. After all, Euro officials have a definite plan, they are almost irreplaceable. As an intern, I could have been fired immediately. I was depressed about it and told a friend over a beer one night and she said: If you’re so good at criticizing why don’t you do it yourself?
What did you answer her?
I ventured that I didn’t have the budget or the people for it and that I could use memes as much as possible. Have a Directorate General for Memes and Satire, DG MEME. And as I said it, it occurred to me that it might work. It is clear to anyone who works in the European bubble that DG MEME will be something related to the European Commission, and everyone likes memes. On that day, June 21, 2018, I posted the first picture under this profile.
Were you already on Twitter at the time, today’s X?
Not at all. I never particularly enjoyed social media, it was a waste of time for me. I only had Facebook, so for about a year and a half to two years I was only on Facebook as DG MEME. Then I switched to Twitter and that’s when I started to enjoy it. There are a lot of interesting people, politicians, journalists to follow on Twitter and it’s easy to make jokes there.
118 thousand people follow you on X. Did you pick them up gradually, or was there a moment when everyone who was interested in European politics added you?
I would say it went up gradually, but in one moment my acceptability for the Eurobubble changed. It was in 2019 after I gave an interview to Politico in Brussels. Thanks to this, many Euro officials, who had been secretly following me until then, confessed to me. They knew I existed but never dared to like or follow me.
Why didn’t they do that according to you?
They were probably afraid that confessing to satire about the EU would damage their careers.
What did you say in the interview for Politico so important?
Nothing. At that time I was still acting as DG MEME incognito, my name was not even mentioned in the text. I spoke in general about the fact that one sometimes needs a good dose of humor to survive in the environment of European institutions. I think it was mainly the placement that the most important media for the European bubble wrote about me, which brought me figuratively out of the cellar and into the light of day.
Fabio Mauri
Italian, in his thirties, a software engineer by profession, who makes a living as an external website consultant. He works, among other things, for the European Commission. In 2018, he founded the satirical account DG MEME on social networks, which uses memes to gloss over European politics and take a dig at EU officials. The profile has become a popular source of release for people in the European bubble, with almost 120,000 fans following it on the X network.
A staring contest
You post jokes almost every day. Do you have a routine for when and what to tweet?
Not exactly. It’s still just a hobby for me that I do next to my job as a software engineer. When there’s a news story that I find funny, or a photo that catches my eye, I run it over in my head for a while. When I feel I have it, I open Photoshop and try to combine the image with the text. I try to keep it short. So that the text is as striking as possible and people read it faster. But I have a high rejection rate, almost half of the memes I work on I end up throwing in the trash.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
I have no secret recipe. I grew up reading comics, especially Charlie Brown satire. I suppose it helps me visualize situations, associate an image with a short, punchy text.
Who is your favorite European political figure that you like to make memes about?
Of course, I have a big weakness for Latvian European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.
Why exactly?
In the photos, he always looks like he doesn’t enjoy his job at all. It’s like he’s there by accident, and he still has to shake someone’s hand. I’ve met him in person and he’s actually a very funny guy. I asked him if the fact that he always looks so serious, to the point of being boring, is his choice of communication. He told me that he felt that way when he represented the institution. It’s fun to watch how different people are in a public situation and in real life when they’re relaxed.
You announced a staring contest where Dombrovskis and Petr Fiala are in the final. What attracted you to the Czech prime minister?
Aside from the fact that he can stare as hard as Dombrovskis, I enjoy his professorial look. For me, it is the sympathetic face of the populist party, which is pushed forward to connect these two poles. And I was amused by one of his last tweets, where he claims that the Czech Republic must get the top portfolio in the European Commission because it is located in the middle of Europe. I don’t believe he wrote it himself as an academic, he must have known it didn’t work that way.
Fabio Mauri with European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis. | Photo: Fabio Mauri Archive (with permission to use)
Is there anyone else from Czech politics whom you follow?
So that’s clear – your president. He is the most memorable person in Czech politics.
Because of his looks? I know you entered him in a beauty contest among EU politicians, he is in the final with the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
For his past. For example, how he saved French soldiers in the Balkans, how he says that he rides a motorcycle… He is the coolest Czech politician. He reminds me of Chuck Norris. He is very well made into memes. A very successful one was, for example, that President Pavel is such a fighter that he is the only one who can articulate with his mouth closed. I am going to the Colors of Ostrava festival for the second time, to talk with people, and I hope to meet your president there this year. I asked him for it some time ago.
“President Pavel invented airplanes because he was tired of being the only person that could fly”
Petr Pavel >> Chuck Norris https://t.co/jnphZZSAFm— DG MEME 🇪🇺 (@meme_ec) March 28, 2024
Why exactly?
I’m doing a series of some more serious interviews right now where I want to talk about the war in Ukraine and try to explain, especially to people in southern Europe, why Russia is a problem. People in Italy, Portugal, Spain have no idea what it means to live next door to Russians. I think by mixing memes and serious conversations I can help communicate this a little.
Where do the conversations come from?
I post them on my website. I have already interviewed the Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, I have addressed the Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, and I would very much like to speak with Petr Pavlo. Journalists usually have to follow the point of view of their country and I don’t have to. I can afford to look at the union from a bird’s eye view or choose someone simply interesting. For example, I interviewed the person who coined the word Brexit, he was one of David Cameron’s advisers. And I recently had coffee with the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Fabio Mauri with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. | Photo: Fabio Mauri Archive (with permission to use)
How did you feel about her?
It was at the end of the campaign before the European elections, so she was very tired. She said eleven more days and it would be over. She genuinely laughed at my memes at times, but you could tell she had a lot on her plate and was generally checking herself a lot.
You go to Colors of Ostrava, you follow Czech politics more than Hungarian politics, you had a Czech girlfriend. Is it a coincidence, or do you have a weakness for the Czech Republic?
I get along with you, I easily make friends with Czechs. I think the Czech sense of humor is as black as mine. And you are direct. When you have to solve something with a group of Italians, they all say yes, yes, yes, but in the end it’s still no. You Czechs, it’s either yes or no. No doubt, no complication.
Your fame in the Czech Republic is rising, as I noted, you will be performing at the Czech Embassy in Vienna. What exactly is it about?
That’s another thing about the Czechs: in the European bubble, everyone knows DG MEME. But only the Czechs had the courage to invite me and say “come, let’s do an event together”. At the same time, I am not dangerous, I like the European Union. I try to give constructive criticism. In Vienna on July 15th in the early evening I will be explaining the EU with memes, it will be for a general audience. I would like to go through more cities with that presentation, so we’ll see how it works. Anyway, I’ll start with you, the Czechs.
You know the European bubble very well. How would you describe her? Are euro officials boring?
Of course not. There are a lot of funny and very bright people there. But their role requires them to be neutral and pretend that nothing touches them and they are not biased by anything. They have to look boring because they are expected to. Their bosses are sometimes bureaucrats with a capital B, who are put there to muddy everything and keep everything under control and not allow something unexpected, spontaneous, to happen. These people are definitely boring.
What memes work best for your followers? Can you already guess what the blockbuster will be?
I already know when a meme goes viral. If there is a funny picture or photo, then whatever inscription you put there, it will still be successful. Some time ago, a guy sent me a picture of von der Leyen adjusting her earpiece during a debate in parliament, and it looks like she’s giving a raised middle finger. I knew right away it was going to be the bomb. I added “When you excel in non-verbal communication.” It was a hit.
But sometimes I don’t guess. Recently, a meme on which von der Leyen and the Italian Prime Minister are discussing has been very popular. Above Giorgia Meloni’s head I added: “Italy must get at least a vice-president of the commission.” And Ursula replies, “Honey, you already have a DG MEME!” I was hesitant to post it, it felt so self-centered. But then I thought it was funny so I let it go. And it was a great success. I think people have recognized the importance of the work I do – keeping them sane. So that I get a kick out of them.