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 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.

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.

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.

Democracy must be our answer to terrorism

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

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.