Francois Hollande

"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."

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

"Each country has a soul, and France's soul is equality."

"I want the French people to respect values that allow each individual to practice his or her faith, but in the frame of our common rules of secularism."

"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."

"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."