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Madame Merkel Knows Very Well That Her Conservative Christian Democratic Union Or Cdu, And The Csu, The Bavarian Sister Party To The Cdu, With Which It Shares Power Nationally, Must Change Their European Policies. The Fdp's Nationalist-liberal Position On Europe Is Presumably One Of The Reasons The Attempt Failed To Form A Jamaica Coalition Government Which Would Have Seen The Cdu, Fdp And Green Party Govern Together.

-Sigmar Gabriel

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Madame Merkel Knows Very

Sigmar Gabriel

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Madame Merkel Knows Very Well That Her Conservative Christian Democratic Union Or Cdu, And The Csu, The Bavarian Sister Party To The Cdu, With Which It Shares Power Nationally, Must Change Their European Policies. The Fdp's Nationalist-liberal Position On Europe Is Presumably One Of The Reasons The Attempt Failed To Form A Jamaica Coalition Government Which Would Have Seen The Cdu, Fdp And Green Party Govern Together.

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Economically And Politically, Germany Is Extremely Stable. There Are Countries With Functioning Governments Whose Institutions Don't Work. My Only Concern Is About Europe. There's A Risk We Will Run Out Of Time. We Have Been Blessed With A Pro-european French President, But We Are Also Approaching The Next Elections For The European Parliament In 2019, And It Will Be Important For Pro-european Parties Present A Credible Answer To The Anti-europeans On The Left And The Right.

Turkey Is Currently Seeking To Make Itself More Independent From Europe And Is Turning To The East. Is That In Our Interest? Does It Help Us Bolster Western Values In Turkey, Or At Least Here At Home? Or Are We Making Ourselves Weaker Overall? At The Same Time, Turkey Is Violating Our European Moral Concepts. It's A Difficult Conflict To Endure, And It Leads To Necessary Disputes And Debates.

It Is Clear That Germany Needs A Foreign Policy In Which We Jointly Define European Interests. Thus Far, We Have Often Defined European Values, But We Have Been Much Too Weak In Defining Mutual Interests. To Preempt Any Possible Misunderstandings: We Cannot Give Short Shrift To Our Values Of Freedom, Democracy And Human Rights.

Those Who Reject Integration Programs In The Long Term Have As Little Right To Stay In Germany As A Hate Preacher Paid From Abroad In A Mosque.

Being Told About The Effects Of Climate Change Is An Appeal To Our Reason And To Our Desire To Bring About Change. But To See That Africans Are The Hardest Hit By Climate Change, Even Though They Generate Almost No Greenhouse Gas, Is A Glaring Injustice, Which Also Triggers Anger And Outrage Over Those Who Seek To Ignore It.

Taming The Financial Markets And Winning Back Democratic Control Over Them Is The Central Condition For Creating A New Social Balance In Germany And Europe.

We Need A Greening Of Globalisation.

I Hope That A German Foreign Policy In 2028 Will Be Part Of A European Foreign Policy, Because Even The Strong Country Of Germany Won't Really Have A Voice In The World If It Is Not Part Of A European Voice.

We, The Social Democrats, Are Convinced That Capitalism Needs To Be Tamed A Second Time. The First Time We Achieved That In Germany For Many Decades With The Social Market Economy. That Is No Longer Enough. Now We Need To Do It In Europe And Even Globally.

What We Have At Present Is A System Of Loss Socialism. Whatever Goes Wrong Is Shouldered By The General Public And Anything That Works Is Privatised. Worshippers Of Market Freedom Have Suspended The Most Important Economic Principle: Risk And Liability Go Hand In Hand.

Political Scientist Herfried Münkler Is Right: If You Only Take Normative Positions, If Your Focus Is Solely On Values, You Won't Find Success In A World Where Others Are Relentlessly Pursuing Their Interests. In A World Full Of Meat-eaters, Vegetarians Have A Tough Time.

Climate Protection Creates Sustainability And Jobs In The Real Economy - In Construction, In The Production Of Heavy Machinery And In Systems Engineering.

Iran Is The Only Country In The World That's Threatening To Erase Another Country From The Map As Part Of A Collective Genocide.

In The Business Of Politics, Emotions And Productive Dissatisfaction With The World In Which We Live Today Are Gradually Being Covered Up By The Minutiae Of Ordinary Life.

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Countries That Work With Europe Should Feel Safer Than They Would If They Worked With Non-democratic Regimes. Why Isn't Europe Building Infrastructure In Africa Instead Of Leaving It To The Chinese? Why Haven't We Succeeded In Promoting The Economic Development Of Our Neighbors In The Balkans, Instead Conceding These Countries To Growing Russian Influence? In An Uncomfortable World, We Europeans Can No Longer Sit Back And Wait For The U.s.a.

It Is Clear That There Are Reasons For Discontent In Iran - Economic And Political Reasons. We Have Told The Iranian Leadership Repeatedly That The Country's Economic Recovery Can Ultimately Only Succeed Through Greater International Economic Cooperation. And The Precondition For That Is Not Only That Iran Refrain From Developing Nuclear Weapons, But Also That Iran's Role In The Region Become Far More Peaceful. We Have Offered To Finally Hold True Negotiations And Talks On That Issue.

Without Sound Conservation And Management Measures, Fisheries Will Quickly Become Depleted And A Basic Component Of Global Food Security Will Be Lost.

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The G8 Nations, Together With The Five Major Emerging Economies Of China, India, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Use Almost Three-quarters Of The Earth's Biocapacity - The Capacity Of The World's Ecosystems To Produce Natural Resources And To Reduce Harmful Substances.

The Truth Is That We Have Long Had A Multi-track Europe With Very Different Objectives. The Traditional Differences Between The North And The South In Fiscal And Economic Policy Are Far Less Problematic Than Those That Exist Between Eastern And Western Europe. In The South And East, China Is Steadily Gaining More Influence, Such That A Few Eu Member States No Longer Dare To Make Decisions That Run Counter To Chinese Interests. You See It Everywhere: China Is The Only Country In The World That Has A Real Geopolitical Strategy.

The New Social Question Is: Democracy Or The Rule Of The Financial Markets. We Are Currently Witnessing The End Of An Era. The Neoliberal Ideology Has Failed Worldwide. The U.s. Movement Occupy Wall Street Is A Good Example Of This.

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What Could Become A Danger To World Peace Is Iran's Nuclear Program And The Country's Open Threat To Annihilate Israel.

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