“My mission is to put France back on its feet. The priority is employment. Efforts have to be made, but those efforts must be made fairly.”
“My real adversary has no name, no face, no party. It will never be elected, yet it governs - the adversary is the world of finance.”
“Nothing was given to me, nothing was entrusted to me, nothing was assigned to me. Everything I have, I took by right.”
“My dear citizens, fellow citizens, French people, this 6th of May, have just chosen change by bringing me the presidency of the French republic. I feel the honor, which has been given to me and the task, the important task faced beyond - in front of you to serve my country.”
“We are a big country, with lots of advantages and history. We are proud to be French. We have to call on patriotism at this time... to ask for an effort in the battle against debt.”
“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 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.”
“As a president I will be like the candidate that I am, a respectful candidate, a rallying candidate, a normal candidate for a normal presidency, at the service of the Republic.”
“During a term in office there are highs and lows, but what counts is that the goal is set as well as the means to achieve it, and the force we put into getting results.”
“France, after the month of May, will share trust with the current leadership of the United States which, on many subjects, has tended to take useful positions in our view.”