These days there are not enough of such intermediary groups, between the state and the individual, with the result that political leaders are often unduly guided by opinion polls.

The European model is, first, a social and economic system founded on the role of the market, for no computer in the world can process information better than the market.

The problem of how we finance the welfare state should not obscure a separate issue: if each person thinks he has an inalienable right to welfare, no matter what happens to the world, that's not equity, it's just creating a society where you can't ask anything of people.

We will have to create an avant-garde.... We could have a Union for the enlarged Europe, and a Federation for the avant-garde.

My problem is how to find the best way of being useful.

If you don't have collective agreements between unions and employers, governments have to legislate more.

This desire for equity must not lead to an excess of welfare, where nobody is responsible for anything.