Matthias Platzeck Quotations

We grew up under dictatorship, wanted democracy and were quickly given responsibility. That sharpens the view for risks, but also for chances.

We want negotiations on building a government to move ahead swiftly.

We want the negotiations on forming a new government to proceed quickly.

I discovered when things were changing that one must always remain open to taking risks and chances in society.

What we are undertaking here is no love affair, that is very clear.

It is not a love relationship, that is clear. But it is appropriate to the circumstances.

I will do everything to pay back this gigantic offering of confidence.

We're not going to have four years of election campaigning. On the contrary, we'll limit that to the last few months before the election in 2009.

We want to use these four years to make Germany stronger for the future.

The grand coalition in Berlin has certainly become more stable.

I've been told this reminds some of the East German days. But the difference is this one was genuine.

The SPD has to eliminate the doubts about our unity. We can only convince the public of the force of our ideas if we cooperate and stay together.

Arbitration is a sensible suggestion which it is worth discussing.

This is not a love match but a very sober marriage of convenience.

This is an attempt to discredit the policies of Gerhard Schroeder, policies that were right.

There will be no cooperation of any kind with the Left Party.

It's a fantastic result and won't be topped.

I want my party to be a place where something is always going on, with one condition -- that what goes on must always be constructive and look forward, not destructive and directed against each other. We should draw a line under the turbulence of recent weeks and look forward.

A party that debates is alive, and we want a lively party that will attract others. The SPD is more than a collection of wings and subgroups. It cannot be divided.

I'm happy that we can again have success at state votes.

In the past days I had to come to the toughest decision in my life, which was to follow my doctors' urgent advice to step down from my position as the leader of the Social Democrat Party in Germany.

We can't continue to look on, when there are entire sectors where there are wages that don't provide a secure livelihood.

Anyone who promises that everything can be made the way it used to be with the recipes of the past betrays in reality the people he claims to represent. We must never participate in this betrayal and we must never allow this betrayal.