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.

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'm going to gather all the French people who want change.

Between France and Senegal there's a history. There's a language that we both speak. There's a culture that we share and to which both of our peoples have contributed. But beyond our history, beyond our language, beyond the links that have united us for so long, what unites us today is the future.

An education program is, by definition, a societal program. Work should be done at school, rather than at home.

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.