Emmanuel Macron wants a stronger Europe, just as the chancellor and I do. I was impressed that the new president climbed onto the stage in front of the Louvre to the sound of the European anthem after his election victory. That was a very powerful symbol. It is very clear: Macron is our ally.

I don't want to interpret the pope's words, especially as I am one of those horrible people who fell away from the Roman church after Martin Luther.

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

For Martin Schulz, the chancellor candidate for the center-left Social Democrats, friendly wishes don't go far enough. He would like to see much more enthusiastic support for Emmanuel Macron than that shown by Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose comments so far have tended to be reserved. As she put it, she doesn't see a need to change her policies because of Macron.

Emmanuel Macron wants to see changes in France and we support him in that. Macron has proven his courage by leading an election campaign friendly to Europe and reform against the majority opinion of the Socialist Party.

By preventing new conflicts, we avert the causes of radicalization and the risk of terrorist attacks in Europe, including in Germany.

Germany has always stood for an E.U. of the 27 countries. But in light of Britain's continued resistance to further integration steps, as we saw with the fiscal pact, there are limits to my optimism in this regard. It's quite possible that we will have to create the new institutions for the euro zone first.