A number of politicians, including those within your own party, believe Germans would be safer if the German military didn't insert itself into so many of the world's hot spots.

If there are possibilities for strengthening investments, they will not fail because of us. Emmanuel Macron is right when he says that we need to do more and talk less.

As a wheelchair user, you cant move about freely. Thats the only thing that bothers me a little. When Im in the Euro Group in Brussels, colleagues who want to talk to me have to come to me. But I hope they know that this has nothing to do with arrogance.

The significant collapse of oil prices shows that it was previously way too high.

At the moment we are facing a whole collection of difficult to forecast developments from the situation in China and the oil-price crash to the worrying news from some banks in Europe and the US. All of that is linked: Worldwide company debt is high and there is a lot of money in circulation. That is why necessary structural reforms are not being made.

If we want to make Europe stronger, then each country first has to ensure that it becomes stronger itself. This applies to Italy and France, and it applies to Germany as well. Subsequently, we in Europe need to discuss how we can improve the community. That is the correct order.

I'm a firm believer in the monetary union.