A biography for Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauerhasn’t been written yet.
“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.”
“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 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.”
“I support social market economy. But it only works if there is fair competition.”
“We have to be strong in ourselves. Whoever defines themselves only through their opponents risks making their entire programme... dependent on others.”
“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.”
“The CDU is willing to continue to take responsibility for our country. We want to do justice to the government mandate.”
“It's hard to pigeonhole me.”
“With every wish to take Europe forward with a German-French nucleus, the proposals must always fit with German interests.”
“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.”
“I think people see me as authentic, just like I am, with my ideas, my style of doing politics.”
“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 to do my work as party leader and that's what I'm concentrating on.”
“Being a people's party cannot mean being a kind of all-purpose political shop that offers something for everyone.”
“My goal is to unite the party, to bring it together.”
“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.”
“There are high hurdles for expelling someone from a party, and with good reason.”
“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.”
“Freedom of opinion is a valuable asset in a democracy.”
“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.”