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.

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

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.

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

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 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.

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

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

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