What is at stake is preserving our relations with the United States. They should not be changed because of what has happened. But trust has to be restored and reinforced.

Everyone says Francois Mitterrand had huge charisma. But before he was president they used to call him badly dressed, old, archaic and say he knew nothing about the economy until the day he was elected. It's called universal suffrage. When you're elected, you become the person that embodies France.

Nothing was given to me, nothing was entrusted to me, nothing was assigned to me. Everything I have, I took by right.

If we don't manage to find not just a compromise but a lasting peace agreement, we know perfectly well what the scenario will be. It has a name, it's called war.

I perfectly understood President Obama's attitude throughout the French presidential campaign. He had no reason to distance himself from Nicolas Sarkozy. It's the basic solidarity that leaders who worked together owe to each other.

My obligation, if I become president, is to give another direction to Europe than the one that is being forced upon us today.

The German-French friendship is indispensable for Europe. And I will never let myself be carried away to making statements that would change it.