The new social question is: democracy or the rule of the financial markets. We are currently witnessing the end of an era. The neoliberal ideology has failed worldwide. The U.S. movement Occupy Wall Street is a good example of this.

Personal life
Gabriel was married to Munise Demirel with whom he has a daughter but the couple divorced. On 15 December 1999 after the resignation of Gerhard Glogowski who had succeeded Gerhard Schröder in office Gabriel became Minister-President of Lower Saxony and served until 4 March 2003. From 2005 to 2009 he was the Federal Minister for the Environment Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the first cabinet of Angela Merkel (CDU).