Top 54 Quotes & Sayings by Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer

I think people see me as authentic, just like I am, with my ideas, my style of doing politics.

Freedom of opinion is a valuable asset in a democracy.

Anything that keeps the U.K. close to the E.U. and best of all, in the E.U., would make me personally very happy.

I support social market economy. But it only works if there is fair competition.

You always stand on the shoulders of your predecessor.

I have to do my work as party leader and that's what I'm concentrating on.

That the CDU has different political views on the topic of redistribution, on the topic of uniform social standards... than the French have, that is nothing new.

The strength of Europe at the end of the day has always been that we stuck together and that demands a great amount - probably even more so than in the past - of discussions, of balancing, of bringing along individual countries.

When it comes to me, I can rule out that I am scheming for a change.

We need to be at the forefront of technological development again.

I believe that we must attach greater importance to the issue of industrial policy in Europe.

My husband and I had a very pragmatic agreement right from the start: whoever earns more works full time. So we switched the classic roles.

There comes a time in everybody's life when it's no longer enough to point and say he or she should do it, but you have to answer yourself... That's why I put myself at the party's service.

I have read a lot about what I am and who I am: 'mini,' a copy, simply 'more of the same.' Dear delegates, I stand before you as I am and as life made me and I am proud of that.

To those who cynically say today that liberal democracy would be 'obsolete,' I reply: liberal democracy, human rights, freedom of the press and the rule of law were the right way, are the right way, and will be the right way.

If we have political forces in the Bundestag, and in parts of the coalition, who... say they want to spend money on pensions, not weapons. Then I say, be honest and say you don't want a German army.

I have the feeling we are the most uptight nation that ever walked this earth.

My life won't be ruined if I don't achieve all of my political goals.

Europe cannot be only the receiver of strategic decisions of others, that is China or the U.S.A. We have to be strong ourselves to shape the global rules.

With every wish to take Europe forward with a German-French nucleus, the proposals must always fit with German interests.

The CDU is willing to continue to take responsibility for our country. We want to do justice to the government mandate.

I am a big fan of the following priorities: first the country, then the party and then the person. I believe that this gives credibility and I want to be credible.

Europe - and in particular Germany - must assume more responsibility. We must be ready to take on this responsibility and that has consequences domestically. That means, for example, we must be ready to spend more money on defense at home and abroad.

We will look at the entire immigration question from the protection of outer borders through the asylum procedures to integration, in particular its efficacy.

I am convinced that we need a stronger Europe that acts in a common agreement on the most crucial issues. For me these are safety, defense, innovation and the aim to maintain our well being.

There are similarities with Angela Merkel, there are issues that separate us, and I'm showing that genuinely and authentically and won't create an artificial separation because it has something to do with character and attitude.

If there is a sport that I'm not particularly fond of, then it is synchronized swimming.

My goal is to unite the party, to bring it together.

European centralism, European statism, the communitization of sovereign debt, a Europeanization of social systems and of the minimum wage would be the wrong way.

We need strategic strength for our industry, technology and innovation, a sense of security for our European citizens and common foreign and security capabilities to defend our interests.

There are high hurdles for expelling someone from a party, and with good reason.

When it comes to social issues such as the role of the family, I'm certainly more conservative than Angela Merkel. But on the big questions on what direction and where Germany should develop, when it comes to the economy, then we have very similar views.

Spain is an example of how hard it is for a conservative party to campaign for elections if the suspicion is fueled that it wants to go into a coalition with the extreme right.

There will certainly be times when Merkel and I will have opposing viewpoints. Just the fact that government work adheres to a different set of prerogatives than a party does makes conflicts unavoidable.

The CDU was a party that united different denominational and ideological currents. If the idea of a rightward shift means that we ignore those roots and only define ourselves as a conservative party, then I am strictly opposed.

Brexit has been a strain on all of us. In some ways it has paralysed us.

If the military is to show the capabilities that we demand and expect of it, then the defense budget has to continue to rise.

I learned what it is to lead - and above all learnt that leadership is more about being strong on the inside than being loud on the outside.

For a long time, perhaps too long, we believed that the world around us would become more and more peaceful, and the order more stable.

We made a clear commitment to NATO's two percent goal. I know that we can't get there from one day to the next, but I'm just as clear on the fact that we must get there in the end.

The CDU is a party with more than 400,000 members. The fact that each one has a different opinion is what makes us interesting.

When Presidents Trump, Putin and Erdogan are mentioned in the same breath here in Germany, as they are all too often, this is a false equivalence that cannot be tolerated.

We have to acknowledge and discuss with citizens that Germany needs to take on more responsibility. One of the questions is, 'Can we keep a functioning international order?'

Our feeling of community and security in Europe requires safe external borders.

We have to be strong in ourselves. Whoever defines themselves only through their opponents risks making their entire programme... dependent on others.

Being a people's party cannot mean being a kind of all-purpose political shop that offers something for everyone.

For me there is no conservative and liberal party, not one that is pro-economy or pro-workers, not one for the East and one for the West. For me, there is only the one union, the Christian Democratic Union, that is our family.

But I stand here as my own person, as a mother of three, as a former interior minister, state leader, who has served this land for 18 years and who has learned what it means to lead. And that leadership has more to do with inner strength than how loud you talk.

It should be clear to everyone what happens when the populists can set the agenda.

If the U.K. had new watertight proposals for the border, I don't think anyone in the E.U. would say, 'We don't want to talk about it.'

There are also parties in Germany that support leaving the E.U. Everyone can see in the example of Britain what consequences that would have.

You don't restore people's faith in law and order with shrill tones, but with real policies.

I stand here as the mother of three children, who knows firsthand how difficult it can be to combine family and a career.

It's hard to pigeonhole me.