France is the bridge between northern Europe and southern Europe. I refuse any division. If Europe has been reunified, it's not for it to then fall into egotism or 'each for one's own'. Our duty is to set common rules around the principles of responsibility and solidarity.

I would like a UK fully engaged in Europe, but I can't decide in place of the British. I see that for the moment they want to be more in retreat.

We're all taking part in this solidarity. The French, the Germans, just like all the Europeans in the ESM. Let's stop thinking that there's only one country who's going to pay for the others. That's false.

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.

I'm going to gather all the French people who want change.

I commit myself to serve my country.

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.

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.

I could have made a fortune in cheeseburgers, but I finally chose politics.

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

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.

I won't wait until the end of my term to say I made mistakes at the beginning. That's too late. I will try to adopt the proper behaviour, if the French give me the chance, right from the start.

Nicolas Sarkozy said he could see a wave rising. For once he was right. The wave's coming; it's high, its strong, and it's going to smack him in the face.

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.

I gave myself an objective, to be the second president from Correze and finally to be the successor to Francois Mitterrand.

Is France a northern European export powerhouse, or a Mediterranean indebted and dependent economy? Yes to both.

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

Austerity need not be Europe's fate.

Before you, I engage myself to serve my country with the devotion and the exemplary that this post demands. I understand responsibilities of the job and, as such, I give a republican salute to Nicolas Sarkozy who has led France for 5 years and who deserves all of our respect.

I am proud to have been capable of giving people hope again.

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

I am attached to the French language. I will defend the ubiquitous use of French.

The British have been particularly shy about the issues of financial regulation, and attentive only to the interests of the City - hence their reluctance to see the introduction of a tax on financial transactions and tax harmonisation in Europe.

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