I hope that France – and all of Europe – we would take an initiative for the year 2012 to be the year of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

I fought for the values of responsibility, and I’m not a man who does not accept his responsibilities.

What made America great was her ability to transform her own dream into hope for all mankind. America did not tell the millions of men and women who came from every country in the world and who – with their hands, their intelligence and their heart – built the greatest nation in the world: ‘Come, and everything will be given to you.’ She said: ‘Come, and the only limits to what you’ll be able to achieve will be your own courage and your own talent.

A page is turning for me. I won’t be candidate in legislative elections, nor in any elections to come.

I understand that people might be poor if they don’t have any work, but I don’t accept that someone is poor if they’ve worked really hard.

We need to profoundly revise all of our taxes and charges. The aim is to tax pollution – notably fossil fuels – more, and tax work less.

Come, and the only limits to what you’ll be able to achieve will be your own courage and your own talent.

I’m ready to become a French person amongst French people, and more than ever I have the love for my country deeply ingrained in my heart.

Perhaps the mistake I made at the start of my mandate is not understanding the symbolic dimension of the president’s role and not being solemn enough in my acts. A mistake for which I would like to apologise or explain myself and which I will not make again. Now, I know the job.

It’s disrespectful to tell the French in the morning that you’re going to reduce the debt, in the evening that you’re not going to make any savings, and the next morning, after thinking about it, that you’re going to spend more.