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It is a long while since I wrote anything in the eGerman media so I decided it is about time to break the ice. I decided to do an interview with JdlF the current eBE country president.

[Please note that this interview is NOT done via real time on IRC but I sent him the question via google doc. I also did not edit or change the interviewee's text so it might contain spelling and other forms of errors etc...]


Hello JDlF. Many thanks for taking your time to do this interview. I hope this interview is an enjoyable experience to both yourself and the readers. This interview will begin with some information about yourself. Later it will shift to policy issues. Last I want to end this interview with some fun questions.

1] Please share with us anything you want to share, like your age, the city of your residence, what do you study in school/ uni or your occupation, hobbies etc. Please share with us so we know who the real JDiF is like.

Hello Konrad, well RL my name is Frédéric and I work as researcher in an university. I’m 27 years old, living near Liege in Belgium. My main hobby right now is to lose weight \o/. So I do sport, eat less … and sometimes I just forget and go crazy on chocolate :’(.

ps: my nickname is jdLf, but written JdlF. 5 golds for the first eGerman who pm me what it stands for.

2] How did you discover this game and what caused you to be so active in it?

Well at first I think I’ve seen an ad in 2009... I was in Argentina at this time. I tried it but after a month I just stopped until last year when a friend from another game asked me to come and help. I came back and at first I just wanted to earn golds. I always want to earn golds o/. Sadly the market is … well you know. So I’ve spoken with few and fastly I went into ATO (eBE party). There I learnt some stuffs and so on. I’m quite laughing about activity as, quoting one of my friend Beavers, I’m the first 2 clickers becoming CP 😉.
Let say that when something needs to be done I enjoy helping people and post monstrous articles without any picture. But when nothing is needed I just say nothing 🙂.

3] What motivated you to become president of eBelgium?

Still a funny question. First Beavers was. And well he started after me. Then, I’ve been elected CM and PP without connecting for a week or something. At that time my joke was: Maybe if I candidate as CP I would become CP without doing anything 😉. That’s for the funny part.
But what really made me want is that it was the perfect moment to make things happen. For months there are possible PTO threats in eBE and problems between two sides. In my opinion all that problems come from a lack of cultural affiliation. Indeed for months governments focus on financial, pto and war matters. But the cultural aspect of eBE was regressing. Perfect time because I thought that the lack of activity due to vacances would allow me time to investigate into social issues.
Please Plato, time is needed. Thank you for the tournament but … try to inform us before \o/.

4] In a few words, please describe what eBelgium means to you.

When I came in eBE it was roleplay. Really, even if i was not the more active on the forum, I really liked what I’ve seen. People making law proposals, arguing … And even some kind of justice!
Nowdays, after nearly a year in eBelgium, it means for me formidable citizens. Everyone is working for his ideal (for or against the government mainly) but with so much heart. I even like G.W.junior for the energy he puts in arguing with everything 🙂.
And above all it’s my eCountry (and country).

5]How would you describe your political orientation (ie conservative, liberal, socialist, communist, anarchist, etc) and how would your views/ orientation influence your policies and management style? Also please tell us about your philosophy and views in regards to domestic and international governance.

Thank you Konrad for the hard one. First one has to know that I am quite a capitalist person. I like golds, I like earning golds and so on. But that are personal aims. For eBelgium I want what is best and right now my feeling is that we have to spend golds on eBelgians. On youngsters so that they can become independents. On cultural events (like this tournament) to reinforce the national spirit. On education and on loans. So one could say that I am also socialist in my way of acting for the country.
I think the fact I’m more a capitalist person just makes me doing more calculations. I usually know how much a program would cost me and so on. Moreover I am not afraid to spend money as I believe to know how it works.
For international governance, we’re happy to be in good terms with our powerful neighbourhood, eUk and ePL. We are even making a training war with ePoland for this tournament (thank you MisziPL). For the rest, we follow CoT orders. You know eBelgium is a small country. We are not a threat to anyone but we help glady other allies and friends.

6] What are your thoughts in regards to Circle of Trust (CoT)? Is it a long lasting alliance?

As I’ve said in one of my article before being elected, international policy is not my field of competences. But I’m learning 😉. As far as I know, I’ve just been to a CoT summit this afternoon and everything’s looking really good with an increase of CoT activities. So yes, it looks very promising for the future.

7] eBelgium is in CoT but it shares extremely good relations with eUK and ePoland who are TWO countries. Some would say that eBE depends more on eUK and ePoland for security and TW’s than what CoT can offer. Is eBE in the wrong alliance? What is the reason for eBE to remain in CoT? Is it a better policy decision for eBE to withdraw CoT membership and be a neutral but pro TWO country?

Haha you’re touching some points indeed. Well I believe we are in the best position ever. It is true that right now, as kind of a newcomer in international politics I already have good relations with Carlini8 and MisziPL. But this is on a personal scale and I can say that no, we are not in the wrong alliance. Have you seen what happened when eFrance has attacked at us? All the help we got?! It was crazy. All those fighters coming from Macedonia, Chile, Bulgaria, … So I don't think it would be a good policy to withdraw from CoT.
But ut is clear that our good relations with ePL and eUK allow us to stay in peace and even get training wars (against ePL), like eGermany is doing right now against ePL (you look like being in a similar situation 😉 ).

8] What do you see is the biggest threat to eBelgium?

Internal tensions between members. As I’ve said I’m quite happy with all the energy some eBelgians put into politics. But all this energy is there to keep eBelgium as a whole. So yes, the biggest threat is internal tensions. It could lead to desperate moves like welcoming potential PTOers. But actually the level of threat is not high at all and everything is fine 🙂.

9] What are your thoughts, feelings, opinions etc in regards to eGermany/ Germark?

Well, I invite your CP and your gov team to have a chat with me. Then I would be able to answer 😉. In and all we always had quite good relations. And we are in the same alliance afterall! With the same neighbourhood situation.

10] Did you have a chance to communicate with the eGerman President N0S3 yet? Is eGermany an essential partner of eBE?

Haha, answered right before, not yet. eGermany is essential in regard that we work together in CoT alliance. And it nice to have allies close to our positions if some relations deteriorate.

11] What should be done to improve/ maintain good relations between our two countries?

Well at first I should have a chat with eGermany’s CP. Then we would figure out something. I guess as our both countries are in CoT, best relations would be to strengthen our links by organizing joint operations on CoT targets.

Fun Questions

12] Why are German beers better than Belgian beer?

Is the best german beer imported from Belgium? 😃
Because we have triple karmeliet just to quote one. You have?

13] Captain Kirk or Picard?

Picard of course! He’s bald like me.

14] What is your favorite Football/ Soccer team?

Belgian national team; then at the national level Standard de Liège and at an international club level: Milan AC, Reald Madrid and … Bayern Munich, gogo Big Dan, one more season! 😁
And honestly my favorite national team was … before we got a proper one... Germany, during Klinsmann and Bierhoff time. I always took your national team in fifa when I was a youngster 🙂. Klinsmann was cheated in fifa98 \o/.

15] PORSCHE or ferrari?

Ferrari, porsches are so common these days 😎. Moreover they are too smooth and I prefer the aggressive look.

16] Why are gay guys the best?

Because they go straight to the point. Don’t hit me \o\.

Many thanks for your time and I hope you enjoyed this interview. I wish you the very best on a successful presidential term.