One of the best things of this job is the interesting people you meet. I do not mean to say that I didn’t know interesting people before; but they were not the head of a church, a worldwide known singers, actors, leading figures in the fight against poverty or Nobel prize winners. And here, you don’t only see them, it is also possible to interview them. It is quite difficult to express by writing the luxury it is for a journalist to have such an easy access to people like that, almost on a daily basis. It is enough to take a look at our website to understand what I mean.

But there are people that mean something to us personally, that can touch us with their story and whom we really want to take the opportunity of talking to: it can be now or never. I am sure each one of us has at least a name to say, someone they would really like to ask about an experience, an opinion, a fact. In my case one of those big names is Ingrid Betancourt.

Even before she was freed, I found her story fascinating. Not knowing very much the details, she had “the essentials”: compromised, touching, brave, she had become a symbol. The Parliament had many times asked for her release, she had even been nominated for the Sakharov prize. And there is a poster in front of the door of my office asking for “libertad para todos”, freedom for all, with a photo of a much youger looking Ingrid.

When she was released, my journalistic instinct made me jump from the sofa and run to write the news. It was difficult to convince myself of the fact that the news rythm in the EP is a different one: I am not longer at a news agency! But that instinct made me stay awake until very late, when I finally saw her getting out of the helicopter. It was true, she was free.

The day after, the President of the Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, invited her to come to the Chamber. She was the “most wanted” guest of the moment, but I knew the European Parliament was different, it had a meaning to her, as she would explain months later during her speech in the plenary chamber in Brussels. So I though the opportunity was there, I could interview Ingrid Betancourt. But then she came to the Parliament for two days and… I just saw her from the distance.

We wanted to do an interview together with EuroparlTV, it seemed like the perfect plan, but I did not think of what finally happened: she refused to do any interview, after having already fixed an appointment, saying that she was very tired. My first thought was that I could not understand. She had said she was tired, but speaking for five minutes sitting comfortably on a sofa wouldn’t be that tiring, would it? I looked for all sorts of ways of convincing myself that I would get it in the end. Finally a red light turned on in my head: maybe I had idealised her, maybe I had built an image of her that did not match with the idea of her refusing to attend any interview. Just a press conference. I thought all that until I saw her speaking in front of the plenary in the most moving speech I had seen since I work here.

Now I know: it is not sitting or standing, it is not lights or flashes. She is mentally and emotionally tired. I wish I could have written that interview, but I wish even more that she will have the opportunity of resting. In the Chamber she said she will not, until the ones who are still in the jungle are freed… I hope we will all see it. Maybe then I will have my interview and I will tell her about this post.