There are tensions abroad where people don't understand our attachment to the freedom of speech, we've seen the protests, and I would say that in France all beliefs are respected.

I want to initiate a change in society in the long term.

That is now my mission: to provide a European vision of growth, employment, prosperity - in one word, our future.

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

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.

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

No one imposes things on anyone in Europe. That's not my notion, nor is it my temperament. The EU has always functioned under the banner of respect, equilibrium and trust.