Quotes from Francois Hollande

The United Nations will be at the heart of our international activities. France will assume its full responsibilities at the Security Council by putting its status at the service of peace, respect for human rights and development.

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.

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.

To resolve the climate crisis, good will, statements of intent are not enough. We are at breaking point.

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

When I took part in European leaders summits, it was sometimes unpleasant for me to hear Romanian, Polish, Portuguese, and Italian friends speak English, although I admit that on an informal basis, first contacts can be made in this language. Nevertheless, I will defend everywhere the use of the French language.

It is intolerable that in our country citizens should feel so upset and under assault because of their religious choice that they would conclude that they have to hide.

What the French want is coherence, stability and justice. If I am in a favorable position today, it's because my fellow citizens want to make the effort to straighten out the country, and at the same time they want it to be just and equitable.

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

Our only goal is to strengthen the opposition and to avoid the dilemma whereby we only have the choice between Bashar Assad and al-Qaeda.

I can understand countries don't want to join the euro, but they cannot impede the consolidation and strengthening of the eurozone.

There must be pressure on Moscow so that we have negotiations. Moscow will not succeed by unilaterally backing Bashar al-Assad.

I bow down in memory of the victims, and I come to tell my Armenian friends that we will never forget the tragedies that your people has endured.

My security is assured everywhere, and at any moment.

In an election, one needs both hope and audacity.

We must do everything to ensure that the Euro 2016 is a success.

France, because it was attacked cowardly, shamelessly, violently, France will be merciless against the barbarians of Daesh.

There cannot be any concessions on the matter of human rights or the criteria for visa liberalisation.

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

There is just one France... one single nation, united in the same destiny.

Transatlantic links are very important.

If Europe does not advance, it will fall or even be wiped out from the world map... My duty is to bring Europe out of its lethargy.

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.

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.