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.

This (multicultural) approach has failed, utterly failed.

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.

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.

We will take care of every single person in our society. That is our task.

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.

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.