We need a comprehensive renewal of the nursing care system in Germany, and quickly. The two-tier medical system must be abolished. Patients with public health insurance are waiting months to be seen by a specialist doctor, while doctors increasingly give priority to privately insured patients. That's unacceptable. We also need an educational revolution. Medicine, nursing care, education: Germany is not a modern country when it comes to these three areas. We have to adapt our policies to the social reality. These are projects that can awaken Germany out of its torpor.

I have no illusions. Of course, Russia is massively upgrading its military. We know that Russia is pursuing a policy of expansion. This is of course a cause for concern among Eastern European countries.

We must now, in the 21st century, protect democracy, one which rests on fundamental rights for all, regardless of skin color, gender, race or religion. Nothing less than that is at stake.

It's not attractive at the moment to vouch for the European idea. I still do it, because I believe nothing would be better for our continent.

If we want to create new rules of globalization, then we can't just think in terms of the nation state. The nation state has long offered protection. But it suffers from the fact that many citizens increasingly fear that it can no longer protect them: The threat of transnational terrorism is growing. Freedom of movement rules in Europe facilitate social dumping. Regardless of the make-up of the next government, it must have clear ideas on how to overcome the lack of direction of recent years.

In 2003, Helmut Schmidt said: Predatory capitalism exists, we have to civilize it and we can do that via Europe. He was right. We haven't tried hard enough.

Donald Trump is betraying everything that made America great: tolerance, democratic institutions and respect for the individual. In that sense, Trump is the most un-American U.S. president that the country has had in a long time.