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Germany is in favor of integration precisely because we don't want dominance.

It is not in the interest of the German people or in the interest of world peace that Germany should become a pawn or a partner in a military struggle for power between the East and the West.

It is nonsense to say that Germans are unable to change.

Nevertheless, I don't hesitate to say that elections in Germany are decided in the center, not on the fringes and not in the accumulation of minority interests.

Germany must be a country which generates political ideas and leadership, which is capable of compromise, which is sovereign and yet knows that it needs its partners on both sides of the Atlantic.

We'd accept Germany either allowing all migrants in or not allowing any in. But whatever Germany decides should only apply to Germany.

So yes, European decision making is not pretty. But it does work.

It is not acceptable that European Union countries are divided into those who give and those who take.

I don't even think of going to Europe as going to another country now.

There are many conflicting interests in Europe.