I could have made a fortune in cheeseburgers, but I finally chose politics.

To me, it's important to preserve proximity to the people. I wouldn't do anything pretentious, and nothing that hurts the people who voted for me. Triumphalism isn't my thing.

We're all taking part in this solidarity. The French, the Germans, just like all the Europeans in the ESM - the eurozone's new rescue fund. Let's stop thinking that there's only one country who's going to pay for the others. That's false.

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.

Each country has a soul, and France's soul is equality.

I am attached to the French language. I will defend the ubiquitous use of French.

We are near, very near, to an end to the eurozone crisis... The worst - in the sense of the fear of the eurozone breaking up - is over. But the best isn't there yet.