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The Campaign In The Media Takes Place In Many Different Formats, Such As In Citizens Forums Or Town - Hall Shows. And Because We Don't Have A Presidential System In Germany, People Vote For Parties Instead Of Specific Candidates. From The Perspective Of Smaller Parties, Even One Single Televised Debate Is A Detested Anomaly, Because Only The Lead Candidates From The Conservatives And The Spd Take Part.

-Angela Merkel

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The Campaign In The

Angela Merkel

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The Campaign In The Media Takes Place In Many Different Formats, Such As In Citizens Forums Or Town - Hall Shows. And Because We Don't Have A Presidential System In Germany, People Vote For Parties Instead Of Specific Candidates. From The Perspective Of Smaller Parties, Even One Single Televised Debate Is A Detested Anomaly, Because Only The Lead Candidates From The Conservatives And The Spd Take Part.

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More From Angela Merkel

This Multicultural Approach, Saying That We Simply Live Side By Side And Live Happily With Each Other Has Failed. Utterly Failed.

I Don't Believe You Are Simply Born With The Ambition Of Becoming Chancellor. But If You Want To Make A Difference, If You Enjoy Putting Ideas Into Practice, Then The Post Of Chancellor Has To Be The One Presenting The Biggest Opportunity Of All.

We Believe In The Rights Of Every Individual To Seek His Fortune, In Respect For Others And In Tolerance. Let Us Reply To The Terrorists By Resolutely Living Our Values And By Redoubling Those Values Across All Of Europe - Now More Than Ever.

Look Forward To The Future And Look Forward To The Unknown. Nothing Stays The Same And People Change. One Day That Hurt And Pain Will Be A Distant Memory.

Nobody In Europe Will Be Abandoned. Nobody In Europe Will Be Excluded. Europe Only Succeeds If We Work Together.

Working Together

As Politicians We Have To React To The Fact That Many People Do Not Feel That They Can Relate To The Eu.

The Digital World Creates Situation Where There Are No Secrets Anymore.

Freedom Is The Very Essence Of Our Economy And Society. Without Freedom The Human Mind Is Prevented From Unleashing Its Creative Force. But What Is Also Clear Is That This Freedom Does Not Stand Alone. It Is Freedom In Responsibility And Freedom To Exercise Responsibility.

Trying To Keep A Society Together, Trying To Keep The Older And The Younger People Together, Trying To Keep Those Who Live In Rural Areas Together With Those Who Live In Cities Is One Of The Most Important And Most Noble Tasks Of Politicians These Days.

Eurobonds Are Absolutely Wrong. In Order To Bring About Common Interest Rates, You Need Similar Competitiveness Levels, Similar Budget Situations. You Don't Get Them By Collectivizing Debts.

It Is Actually A Very Good Thing, If After Eight Years Of Coverage The President Of The United States [barack Obama] Says That This Is A Cooperation Based On Friendship That We Cooperated Well.

...climate Change Is Accelerating. It Threatens Our Well Being, Our Security, And Our Economic Development. It Will Lead To Uncontrollable Risks And Dramatic Damage If We Do Not Take Resolute Countermeasures.

For A Few Years, More People Have Been Leaving Our Country Than Entering It. Wherever It Is Possible, We Must Lower The Entry Hurdles For Those Who Bring The Country Forward.

I Think We Can Say Our Energy System Will Be The Most Efficient And Environmentally Friendly In The World.

Politicians Have To Be Committed To People In Equal Measures.

The European Union And The United States Of America Are The Big Important Economic Areas For Us, Which Is Why I Always Have Come Up Strongly In Favor Of Concluding A Trade Agreement With The United States Of America.

Spying Among Friends Is Never Acceptable.

Everyone Wants A More Simple Tax System. But If This Means That Certain Tax Breaks Have To Be Cut, People Are No Longer So Enthusiastic.

This Conclusion Of Trade Agreements That Go Beyond The Scope Of Mere Tariff Agreements, Customs Agreements, Are Most Important And I'm Very Pleased We Were Able To Bring This To Fruition Between Canada And The E.u. We've Made Great Progress, Particularly If We Look At One Of The Great Global Issues, Namely Climate Protection, Without The Engagement Of The Current Administration Under The Leadership Of Barack Obama, This Paris Agreement Would Never Have Come About.

The Euro Is Our Common Fate, And Europe Is Our Common Future.

Look At The European Parliament. There Are A Lot Of People Who Are Looking For Simplistic Solutions, For - Who Are Sort Of Preaching Policies Of - Well, Very Unfriendly Policies.

Information Obtained Under Dubious Circumstances Cannot Play A Role In Legal Proceedings In A Constitutional State. But Everything That's Available Must Be Taken Into Account In Threat Prevention.

From A German Point Of View, German-american And European-american Relations Are A Pillar Of Our Foreign Policy.

Nato Needs To Adapt Its Strategy To Meet New Challenges

It's Not Five Minutes To Midnight. It's Five Minutes After Midnight.

History Has Often Showed Us The Strength Of The Forces That Are Unleashed By The Yearning For Freedom. It Moved People To Overcome Their Fears And Openly Confront Dictators Such As In East Germany And Eastern Europe About 22 Years Ago... The Yearning For Freedom Cannot Be Contained By Walls For Long. It Was This Yearning That Brought Down The Iron Curtain That Divided Germany And Europe, And Indeed The World, Into Two Blocs.

The Markets Want To Force Us To Do Certain Things. That We Won't Do. Politicians Have To Make Sure That We're Unassailable, That We Can Make Policy For The People.

The Willingness To Learn New Skills Is Very High.

I Might Bend, But I Will Never Break Because It's In My Nature As A Strong Woman.

I Am Thankful For All The Hard Times I've Been Through And All The Tears I've Cried Because That Has Put Me As Closer To God And Made Me The Strong Woman I Am Today!

The Question Is: Would There Be A Market In Germany For Certain Types Of Employment If One Were To Allow The Employed Person To Earn Less Than Is Necessary To Maintain His Standard Of Living?

I Approach This With - With An Open Mind And I'll Do It On The Basis Of A Deep Conviction With President-elect Donald Trump.

If We Remind Ourselves Of The Fact That Every Fifth American Today Rightly Points And Perhaps Also With A Certain Degree Of Pride To His German Ancestry Or Her German Ancestry, We Can Safely Say That We, Indeed, Share Common Roots.

This (multicultural) Approach Has Failed, Utterly Failed.

I Want Us To Be Able To Preserve Our Level Of Prosperity. We Must Constantly Remind Ourselves That Germany Has Been Eating Into Its Capital. It Is Only Through Successful Management That We Can Once Again Secure Our Foundation Of Prosperity And Social Security.

Look At The History Of The Printing Press, When This Was Invented What Sort Of Consequences This Had. Or Industrialization, What Sort Of Consequences That Had. Very Often, It Led To Enormous Transformational Processes Within Individual Societies. And It Took Awhile Until Societies Learned How To Find The Right Kind Of Policies To Contain This And Manage And Steer This.

Industrialization

We Must Never Forget Our Responsibilities As Politicians To Our Country And Its Citizens. We Must Always Remain Humble Before Our People.

Only Our Own Strength, A Strong Conservative Party, Can Prevent Red-red-green From Taking Power At The Federal Level In 2017.

A Good Compromise Is One Where Everybody Makes A Contribution.

I Don't Carry Any Early Childhood Trauma Around With Me, If That's What You're Hinting At. The Story Of The Bicycles - And There Were Three Of Them Which Were Stolen From Me - I've Dealt With It Well.

We Have Shared Those Values, We Continue To Share Those Values And Obviously, We Will Continue To Cooperate With The New Administration [of The U.s].

The Role Of The Opposition Leader Differs From That Of The Chancellor. If This Government Is To Be Successful, I Have To Take The Emotional State Of All Partners Into Account. Besides, The Social Democrats Didn't Exactly Present Me With The Motto "let Us Dare To Have More Freedom" On A Silver Platter.

The Freedom Bell In Berlin Is, Like The Liberty Bell In Philadelphia, A Symbol Which Reminds Us That Freedom Does Not Come About Of Itself. It Must Be Struggled For And Then Defended Anew Every Day Of Our Lives.

We Were Able To Conclude A Paris Climate Agreement, Which Will Lead The Way For The Rest Of The World, Which Is Groundbreaking. And Together With The Sustainable Development Goals Of The Agenda 2030 For The Whole World, This Is Indeed A Sea Change, I Think, That We See Here, And, Step-by-step, It Will Be Implemented.

An Institution Like Guantanamo In Its Present Form Cannot And Must Not Exist In The Long Term. We Must Find Different Ways Of Dealing With Prisoners. As Far As I'm Concerned There's No Question About That.

Personally, I Think That For Example The Chemical Directive In Its Present Form Does Too Much Damage To The Chemical Industry - Especially The Medium Sized Businesses - And Will Hurt Our Worldwide Competitiveness.

Ordinary People Regard A Man Of A Certain Force And Flexibility Of Character As They Do A Lion; They Look At Him With A Sort Of Wonder, Perhaps They Admire Him; But They Will On No Account House With Him.

Thank [barack Obama] For The Friendship You've Always Demonstrated.

On The Issue Past Of Independence Of Germany, After The Time Of National Socialism, Germany Has Been Given An Enormous Amount Of Help Particularly And Also From The United States Of America. A Fact That We Were Able To Enjoy German Unification Is Due First And Foremost To The Help Of The United States Of America.

With Political Means And Always Trying To Work For Political Settlements And This Is What I'm Going To Continue To Work On With All My Heart.

The [barack Obama] Administration Is Sharing Its Knowledge, Its Expertise With The Incoming Administration. And This, To Us, Is A Sign Of Encouragement, To Continue The Good Cooperation That We Have Built Between The United States Of America And The Federal Republic Of Germany That Is In Our Mutual Interest.

Mutual Interest

Always Be More Than You Appear And Never Appear To Be More Than You Are.

I Never Underestimated Myself. And I Never Saw Anything Wrong With Ambition.

I Said, Yet Again, For Germany, Europe Is Not Only Indispensable, It Is Part And Parcel Of Our Identity. We've Always Said German Unity, European Unity And Integration, That's Two Parts Of One And The Same Coin. But We Want, Obviously, To Boost Our Competitiveness.

Whoever Decides To Dedicate Their Life To Politics Knows That Earning Money Isn't The Top Priority.

I Am Not An Expert In This Field But I Do Try To Keep Up To Date With The Bundesliga. And I Do Follow World Cups And European Championships More Closely.

Implementing Parts Of European Constitution And Leaving Out Others - Without Knowing Where We're Going - Isn't An Option. That Would Be Detrimental To The Overall Balance, Which Is Why We Must Embark On Another Comprehensive Discussion Of The Issue Once Again. I Would Like To See Europe Retain The Idea Of A Constitution In The End, And I Plan To Campaign On Its Behalf.

At This Time - We're In A Dramatic Crisis - Euro Bonds Are Precisely The Wrong Answer. They Lead Us Into A Debt Union, Not A Stability Union. Each Country Has To Take Its Own Steps To Reduce Its Debt.

Today's Russia Is Not To Be Compared With The Soviet Union Of Back Then.

There's Another Point That I Wanted To Mention Here, Particularly The Engagement And Commitment To Africa. For Us Europeans, Africa As A Neighboring Continent Is Of Prime Importance. The Development Of African Countries Is In Our Very Own Vested Interest.

I Think That The Eu With The Lisbon Agenda Has Put The Right Emphasis On Growth And Employment.

There Is Anything But An Assurance Of Success, I Have To Be Very Clear About That.

I Am Courageous At The Decisive Moment. But I Need A Good Deal Of Start-up Time, And I Try To Take As Much As Possible Into Consideration Beforehand.

I Take Advantage Of The Ability To Fly With Helicopters Belonging To The Federal Police Force, And This Privilege Is Consistent With Rules That Have Been In Place For Decades. A Chancellor Must Be Accessible At All Times And Be In A Position To Execute Their Duties As Best They Can. I Must Have The Ability To Immediately Return To Berlin If Necessary. There Are Also Security Considerations.

We Can't Constantly Explain To Our Voters That Taxpayers Have To Be On The Hook For Certain Risks, Rather Than Those Who Make A Lot Of Money Taking Those Risks.

Budget Consolidation And Economic Growth Are Two Sides Of The Same Coin.

My Life Changed Completely In 1989 With The Fall Of The Wall.

I Still Believe In The Old Fashioned Ways Of Showing A Woman Respect And Honor!!

Above All It Is Important To Point Out That We Can Only Maintain Our Prosperity In Europe If We Belong To The Most Innovative Regions In The World.

It's Important That The Disparities In The Living Conditions Cannot Be Allowed In This Digital Period To Be Too Marked. Each And Every One Must Be Given An Opportunity To Participate, Which Is Why Germany's Fate In Many Ways Depends On The Firmness Of Its Alliance With Nato, With The European Union.

There's A Rumour Going Around That States Cannot Go Bankrupt. This Rumour Is Not True.

Don't Get Bogged Down By Life And Other People's Problems Or Hang Ups.

We're Saying This To Both Countries: We Want A Two-state Solution. We Want A Jewish State Of Israel And Alongside An Independent Palestinian State. Unilateral Measures Are Not Helping At All To Bring About This Cause, And We Agree That We Wish To Cooperate Very Closely On This, Because As We Both Say, Time Is Of The Essence.

The Us Military Has Achieved A Decisive Blow Against Al-qaeda With Its Commando Action Against Osama Bin Laden And His Killing.

It Will Not Be Possible To Solve The Current Crisis With Euro Bonds.

I Am Always On Duty, Even When I Am At Party Events Or On Vacation. I Don't Complain About It, On The Contrary. Time Management For Candidates Without Government Functions Is Different Than It Is For Me. No Matter Where I Am, I Always Have To Have My Duties As Chancellor In Mind.

The Problem Is, Of Course, That These Interest Groups Are All Asking For Changes, But Their Enthusiasm For Change Rapidly Disappears When It Affects The Core Of Their Own Interests.

When It Comes To Human Dignity, We Cannot Make Compromises.

I'm A Person Who Acknowledges Reality. I Don't Get Up Every Morning And Ask Myself: What Would I Do Differently If I Were Chancellor In A Black-and-yellow (christian Democrat And Free Democrat) Coalition? The Spd (social Democratic Party) And The (christian Democrat And Christian Social) Union Stand To Weaken Their Own Positions If They Don't Make This Coalition A Success. And We Both Want Success.

I Am Thankful For The Way I Was Raised, To Be Positive. Even When Times Have Gotten Rough I Have Always Tried To Look On The Bright Side. Even When I Was Put Down, Yelled At And Made Feel Insignificant, I Still Thought Things Were Alright. I Did Realize When Enough Is Enough.

Alliances Are Part Of Our Destiny As A Nation, Part Of Our Future As A Nation And This Is What Guides Me In My Policy, What Guides My Government As A Whole.

Foreign Policy That Is Obviously Guided By Interests, But That Is Very Much Also Committed To Shared Values, So We Have A Platform, Democracy, Freedom, Respect Of Human Rights That We Would Like To See Respected All Over The World And Also, A Peaceful World Order.

Osama Bin Laden Was Responsible For The Deaths Of Thousands Of Innocent People. Terror Was Brought To Many Countries On His Direct Orders And In His Name, Against Men, Women And Children, Christians And Muslims. Osama Bin Laden Claimed To Be Acting In The Name Of Islam, But In Reality He Made A Mockery Of The Basic Values Of His And All Other Religions.

That Makes Me Think Of The 2002 World Cup Final Above All Else. Nobody Thought At The Time That Our Team Would Get Through To The Final Against Brazil. We Should Remember That This Summer.

If You've Worked Together With Somebody Very Well, Leave-taking Is Very Difficult. But We Are All Politicians. We All Know That Democracy Lives Off Change. So, In The United States Of America, The Constitution Has Very Clear Stipulations On This. It's A Tough Rule. Eight Years And That's It, Out Goes The President And A New One Comes In.

It Is Nonsense To Say That Germans Are Unable To Change.

Unable To Change

It Is A Fact That, If I Single Out Germany, Our Rate Of Growth Is Too Low And We Have Very High Unemployment.

Don't Get Bitter And Twisted And Nasty By Life. You May Have Been Wronged Or Cheated On; Two Wrongs Never Make A Right. Instead Learn Your Mistakes And Learn Your Lessons. Remain Strong With Your Head Held High.

The People In East Germany Have Lived Through So Many Changes In The Last 15 Years Like Never Before In The Country, And They Did This Often With Great Enthusiasm. But In The West We Also Have A High Degree Of Transformations.

For 10 Years, I Have Fought Passionately For Climate Protection.

The G7 And Former G8 Group Has Always Viewed Itself As A Community Of Values, The Annexation Of Crimea, Which Is A Blatant Violation Of The Principles Of International Law, And The Events In Eastern Ukraine Are Serious Violations Of These Common Values.

The Campaign In The Media Takes Place In Many Different Formats, Such As In Citizens Forums Or Town - Hall Shows. And Because We Don't Have A Presidential System In Germany, People Vote For Parties Instead Of Specific Candidates. From The Perspective Of Smaller Parties, Even One Single Televised Debate Is A Detested Anomaly, Because Only The Lead Candidates From The Conservatives And The Spd Take Part.

I Fortunately Know Very Many People, And There Are Many, Many More That I Don't Know And Many Politicians Who Stand Up For The Same Values Of Democracy Of Liberal Societies, Of Open Societies Of Respect For The Dignity Of Man.

The Times When We Could Fully Count On Others Are Over To A Certain Extent.

I Would Like To See Russia Develop As Democratically As Possible. But When We Judge Russia We Must Also Consider Where The Country Is Coming From. Our Concepts Of Democracy Can't Just Be Schematically Transferred. However, I Do Admit That I'm Concerned About Some Recent Developments, Such As The New Laws Against Non-governmental Organizations.

We Cannot Stand Alone. With 80 Million People In This World Of Today, You Cannot, When You Just Stand On Your Own, Achieve Much Even Though You May Be Economically Strong.

Neither The Chains Of Dictatorship Nor The Fetters Of Oppression Can Keep Down The Forces Of Freedom For Long.

We Feel Bound To The Christian Image Of Humanity - That Is What Defines Us. Those Who Do Not Accept This Are In The Wrong Place Here.

So Europe Needs To Be Competitive And We Also Need To Be Competitive If We Wish To Remain An Interesting Economic Partner For The United States. This Has To Be Done On The Basis Of Strength, Of Competitiveness.

What Do You Do When Other Countries' Intelligence Agencies Give You Information And You Aren't Entirely Certain About Its Source? Simply Ignore It? That's Impossible. We Have A Duty To Guarantee The Safety Of Our Citizens.

I Feel Like We Are In A Community Of People Who Sign Up For These Values Who Try To Maintain Them And Wherever They Are Not Yet Respected, To Stand Up For People's Rights To Enjoy Them, As Well. And This Is Worth Every Effort.

The Fact That People Have Hijacked It Is Certainly Not Something That Fills Me With Great Joy. We Have To Find New Ways Of Addressing People, New Ways Of Getting Into Contact With People.

If I Run A Time-limited Test Program, I'll Never Discover Whether Markets With Additional Employment Truly Exist. A Solution In The Low-wage Sector Cannot Be A Limited Special Program.

In Europe It Is Particularly Important That We Build Good Relations To Everyone Who Holds Political Responsibility Because Europe Can Only Be Build Together.

Our Bilateral Relations Are Very Good, They’re Very Close. In The Areas Of Business, Of The Economy, The United States Of America Last Year Were Our Most Important Trading Partner.

On Russia, I Can Only Repeat What The President [barack Obama] Said. This Is All About Respecting Certain Principles, And I'm Saying This From A European Vantage Point, From A European, From A German Vantage Point, Sorry, The Fact That For Over 70 Years We Have Been Able To Enjoy Peace.

We Have Freedom To Demonstrate In Germany, But There Is No Place For Incitement And Insulting People Who Come To Us From Other Countries.

Ladies, It Is Not Your Education, Status Or Personality That Has Brought You Here But The Elegance Of God Which Was Still And Still Working Upon You.

Overcoming The Cold War Required Courage From The People Of Central And Eastern Europe And What Was Then The German Democratic Republic, But It Also Required The Steadfastness Of Western Partner Over Many Decades When Many Had Long Lost Hope Of Integration Of The Two Germanys And Europe.

We Cannot Allow Employers In Germany To Pay Hourly Wages Of 50 Cents And Shift The Remainder Of The Burden To The Taxpayer. After All, We Want To Create Jobs, Not Open A Self-service Shop For Resourceful Employers.

There Are A Lot Of Areas Where We Cooperate, Fight Against Isil, For Example. Here, Germany Was Able To Contribute To A Certain Extent In Certain Areas.

Just Because Times Change And Alot Of People Think That Dating Multiple People Is The Thing These Days, It Just Isn't A Solid Foundation At All In Matters Of The Heart. I Still Believe In Marriages That Have A Physically Powerful Foundation.

Our Relationship With The United States Is Not Reduced To Questions Of Fighting Terrorism And The Iraq War. German-american Relations Were So Good For So Many Years Because They Extended Deeply Into The Normal Lives Of People.

From This Experience We Have Learned That In A Big Party It Is Important To Have The Necessary And Often Controversial Discussions On Policy Issues Such As The Health System While In Opposition.

I Have Great Respect For Press Freedoms. At The Same Time, However, A Politician Also Has The Freedom To Decide Whether He Or She Will Accept An Invitation To Appear On A Show Or Not.

Freedom Of The Press

Ever Since Germany Was Able To Regain Its Unity, It Is In An Even Stronger Position To Give Its Contribution To Upholding This Order To Which We Feel Committed And For Which Particularly People In The German Democratic Republic Stood Out There On The Streets To Keep This Up, To Maintain This Order.

First, We Need Good, Stable Relations With Russia. Second, We Must Make Every Effort To Save Energy And Focus On Using Various Sources To Meet Our Energy Needs. We Must Not Allow Ourselves To Become Dependent.

I'm Very Grateful That Barack Obama As President Very Much Put Protection Of Privacy On The Agenda Today, Due To The Fact Of Islamist Terrorism All Over The World.

Just Look At Poland, A Sort Of European Perspective This Has. So We Have An Interest In Seeing This Relationship Be A Good One. We Have A Lot Of Historical Ties Of Course, A History That We Share. But This Mustn't Keep Us From Wherever We Feel There Are Very Grave Differences Of Opinion To Raise Them With Them.

I Believe That We Will Move Forward A Little Tomorrow But I Have My Doubts That We Will Achieve A Result.

That Is Why Everyone In Politics, And We Do It, Must Make Sure That They Do Not Depend On One Single Interest Group. A Good Compromise Is One Where Everybody Makes A Contribution.

We Will Take Care Of Every Single Person In Our Society. That Is Our Task.

When We, For Example, See Shifts Of Huge Production Lines From Certain Areas To Other Countries, People Tend To Ask The Question, "where's My Place In This Modern World?" We Have This Here, This Tendency In Our Country, We Have It In Other Countries.

We Have Very Stable Mechanisms Of Conflict Resolution In Terms Of Labor Relations, We Have A Very Good Transportation Infrastructure, We Provide Our Children With An Excellent Education And The Gap Between Rich And Poor In Germany Is Relatively Narrow. On The Other Hand, We Have Trouble Accepting Change.

Through The Threat Of Is, We Recognize How Important The Cooperation With Intelligence Services (inaudible) First And Foremost Also With The Services Of The United States Is.

Intelligence Services

We Need Trust Among Allies And Partners. Such Trust Now Has To Be Built Anew.

Europe Can Only Hold Together And Stand Together, Which Is Very Important In Times Of Migration Challenges, Terrorism Challenges, If Each Country Takes Responsibility For Itself.

Where There’s A Will, There’s A Way.

It Certainly Is Dangerous That There Are Only A Few Clubs Left In Europe That Can Afford To Pay Millions. At The End Of The Day However, The Spectators Decide The Rates Of Pay - By Watching The Games And Consuming The Goods And Services Advertised On Sports Tv Programmes.

The Full Veil Is Not Appropriate For Germans, And Should Be Banned Wherever Legally Possible.

We Think Of Cannabis As A Drug, In Accordance With International Opinions. This Means That Even Consuming Small Amounts Can Lead To Very Severe Dependence. With Alcohol Or Cigarettes However, Sensibly Limited Consumption Does Not Bear The Risk Of Immediate Addictiveness As This Is The Case With Cannabis According To Our Opinion. With Alcohol There Surely Is An Element Of A Tradition. However, Enjoyed In Moderation, As Supplement To A Meal For Example, Alcohol Is Not Something That Causes Immediate Dependence. Still, There Is A Great Need For Prevention And Information In This Matter.

At The Beginning Of The 60's Our Country Called The Foreign Workers To Come To Germany And Now They Live In Our Country. We Kidded Ourselves A While, We Said: 'they Won't Stay, Sometime They Will Be Gone.' But This Isn't Reality.

As Chancellor, I Am - As It Should Be - Constantly Under The Microscope From Both The Public And The Media. It Is Also Important To Me That My Staff Tells Me Openly How They See Things. And An Additional Good Indicator Is The Mood In My Own Electoral District. When I Am There, Which Happens Frequently, No One Is Particularly Excited Or Impressed Anymore To Meet The Chancellor. People There Tell Me Immediately What Is Going Well And What Isn't.

Herr Schroder Has Conducted Two Electoral Campaigns, And He Is Doing It Again Now, By Not Telling People What Is Really Necessary. He Keeps Avoiding The Difficult And Uncomfortable Issues, Those That Imply Changes And Therefore Provoke Discussions.

In The German Football Team Players From Different Clubs Need To Get On With Each Other Both On And Off The Pitch. In The Grand Coalition Christian Democrats And Social Democrats Sit In The Same Boat And Need To Pull In The Same Direction.

I Will Not Let Anyone Tell Me We Must Spend More Money. This Crisis Did Not Come About Because We Issued Too Little Money But Because We Created Economic Growth With Too Much Money And It Was Not Sustainable Growth.

I Want To See Everyone Contribute To The Overall Costs Of The System, And With Their Entire Earnings. I'm Convinced That An Objective Discussion Will Reveal That The Differences Between The Parties, Which Have Been Greatly Exaggerated In Some Quarters, Aren't That Significant After All.

If Europe Today Accounts For Just Over 7 Per Cent Of The World's Population, Produces Around 25 Per Cent Of Global Gdp And Has To Finance 50 Per Cent Of Global Social Spending, Then It's Obvious That It Will Have To Work Very Hard To Maintain Its Prosperity And Way Of Life.

I'm Very Pleased This Military Engagement Together With A Political Road Map That We Developed, We Were Able To Continue. We Want To Bring About A Political Solution There. We Worked Very Closely Together [with Barack Obama] On The Issue Of Annexation Of Crimea And Russia's Attempt To Actually Conquer Ukraine And Actually, They Did So, Conquer Part Of The Territory. We Tried To Come To A Peaceful Settlement Here On This.

No Bank Should Be Allowed To Become So Big That It Can Blackmail Governments.

We Europeans Must Really Take Our Destiny Into Our Own Hands, Of Course In Friendship With The United States, In Friendship With Great Britain, With Other Neighbors Wherever Possible, Also With Russia. But We Must Know That We Need To Fight For Our Future Ourselves, As Europeans, For Our Destiny.

On The One Hand, The Financial Projection Is On The Agenda - We Will See If This Problem Can Be Resolved Or Not. I Think It Is A Right Idea To Stage A Special Summit, Which Would Deal With The Question Of Priorities Of European Politics.

The Substance Of The Constitution Is Preserved. That Is A Fact.

Thank[barack Obama] For The Reliable Friendship And Partnership You Demonstrated In Very Difficult Hours Of Our Relationship.

Our Relationship

I Believe That We Do Not Share As Many Values With Russia Yet As We Do With The United States. On The Other Hand, We Have A Strong Interest In Russia Developing In A Reasonable Direction.

If A Market Exists For Low-paid Work, Then We Should Think About How We Can Make This Type Of Work More Attractive By Providing Government Assistance. Of Course, The Wage-earner Must Be Able To Live Off Of His Wages. We Will Not Allow Poverty Wages Or Dumping Wages. But The Wage Earner Can Receive A Combined Wage That Includes Both His Actual Wages And A Government Subsidy.

As The Head Of The Government, It Is My Responsibility To Make The Overriding Political Goals And Relationships More Clear. Part Of The Reason The Public Didn't Understand Some Of The Reforms Enacted During The Past Legislative Period Was That There Was Far Too Much Talk About The Details, While The General Picture Often Remained Invisible.

To Be Serious, If We Were Only Interested In Earning Big Money Then A Politician Would Have To Go And Work In Industry.

Global Climate Change Is One Of The Greatest Challenges Facing Humanity In The Twenty-first Century.

Belong Purportedly To Certain Groups Say, "we Are The People And Not The Others." That Is Something That We Cannot Allow To Happen. That Is Something That I Think At The Time In The Gdr - At The Time When We Had This In The Gdr, Where The People Stood In The Street And Said, "we Are The People," That Is Something That Filled Me With Great Joy.

Freedom Does Not Mean Being Free Of Something, But To Be Free To Do Something.

I Felt Really Sorry For Oliver Kahn. Up To That Point He Had Made Lots Of Saves For The German Team. Of Course He Could Have Caught The Ball But It Just Happened. It Was Bad Luck. In That Situation, You Need To Be Very Strong Psychologically To Carry On.

One Can Remain More Sure-footed By Taking Small Steps, But Perhaps Achieve Greater Speed By Taking Bigger Steps. Of Course, One Also Runs The Risk Of Setting Out In A Completely Erroneous Direction. Surely The Important Thing Isn't The Length Of Our Steps, But That The Objective Is Clear.

I Am Not Here For Women Only, But Also For Women.

And I Think That A Woman As Chancellor Can Also Serve As A Good Example,.

If You Want To Be Constructive In Politics, The Less You Look Back, The Better. If You Do Look Back, Then It Can Only Be To Learn For Yourself Through The Events That Have Taken Place.

To Exclude Groups Of People Because Of Their Faith, This Isn't Worthy Of The Free State In Which We Live. It Isn't Compatible With Our Essential Values. And Its Humanly Reprehensible, Xenophobia, Racism, Extremism Have No Place Here. We Are Fighting To Ensure That They Don't Have A Place Elsewhere Either.

The Land Of Unlimited Opportunity Was For Me, For A Long Time, Impossible To Reach. The Wall, Barbed Wire And The Order To Shoot At Those Who Tried To Leave Limited My Access To The Free World.

We Have [unfriendly Policies] Here In Europe, Too. We Have Them Here In Germany, Too. And To Take Up Where The President Left Off, Digitization Is In A Way A Disruptive Force, A Disruptive Technological Force That Brings About Deep-seated Change, Transformation Of A Society.

If I May, To Underline First Of All That I Am Very Much Impressed That In Spite Of The Very Tough Election Campaign, This Transition Period In The United States Of America Follows Democratic Principles And Is All About The American People. It's About The Destiny Of The American People.

We All Want To Be Honest And Draw Lessons From The Past, The Who Is The Only International Organization That Has Universal Political Legitimacy On Global Health Issues. This Is Why It's So Important To Render Its Structures More Efficient.

Let Me Say This On A Personal Note. Without The United States Of America, I Would In All Probably Not Be Able To Stand Here Before You Today.

Democracy Must Be Our Answer To Terrorism

I Feel Sorry Sometimes For These Sportsmen And Women Who Put In Just As Much Effort As The Footballers. For Example, Athletes Train At Least As Hard As Footballers But Have To Be Happy If They Can Earn Enough To Finance A Decent Education.

The Plurality Of German Campaign Formats, Including The Televised Debates, Reflect That We In Germany Don't Directly Vote For A Person Like In The United States Or In France, But For Parties. We Have A Different System.

If It's In The German Interest To Have Good Trans-atlantic Relations, Well, The Task Is Also To Look Ahead, But Our Personal - That We Have Freedom Of Movement In The Whole Of Germany So If We Want To See Each Other, Well, I'm Game.

For My Part, In Everything I Do, I Aim To Strengthen Democracy In Germany And Beyond. The United States Is Also A Strong Democracy. As We Are Seeing In Poland, For Example, And Also In Hungary, It Is Important That We Have Counterweights In Democratic Systems, And I Believe They Are Still Strong In America.

Partners Like The United States And Germany Must Always Discuss All Issues, Including These Questions. I Welcome The Fact That A Discussion Over Legitimate Methods Of Questioning And Interrogation Is Taking Place In Both Germany And The United States.

Globalization - And I Think We Share This Conviction - Is That Globalization Needs To Be Shaped Politically, It Needs To Be Given A Human Face, But We Cannot Allow To Fall Back Into Plagued Globalization Times.

It Seems To Me That The Fact That I Am A Woman Is A Bigger Issue Than The Fact That I'm From The East. For Me It Isn't Really Important. I've Only Ever Known Myself As A Woman.

As A Woman With Strong Opinions Talking About Technology And Politics Is Not Always Welcome In Germany. Nope, It's More Like Having A Great Cheerleader Team Behind Me. People Who Follow My Journey Know I Have A Slightly Colorful Personality. The Rest Skipped Out Long Ago.

The Real Problem Is That The Financial Base For Our Social Security System Is Shrinking Because The Number Of Normal Jobs Is Falling. In Other Words, We Have To Address The Challenge Of How To Make Employment, In The Classic Sense, Attractive Once Again.

I Think We Live In A Period Of Profound Transformation. Very Similar To When We Had A Transition From Agricultural Societies To Industrial Societies.

Particularly From A German Perspective, From A European Perspective, I Can Only Say Again, Russia Is Our Neighbor.

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Richard E. Grant

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