The problem of how we finance the welfare state should not obscure a separate issue: if each person thinks he has an inalienable right to welfare, no matter what happens to the world, that's not equity, it's just creating a society where you can't ask anything of people.

We have to struggle against the conservatives from all sides, not only the right-wingers, but also the left-wing conservatives who don't want to change anything.

My problem is how to find the best way of being useful.

This desire for equity must not lead to an excess of welfare, where nobody is responsible for anything.

Any union that can't accept workers choosing their own representatives through universal franchise is finished.

Cinema explains American society. It's like a Western, with good guys and bad guys, where the weak don't have a place.

Even in Britain, the trade unions tell me that employment contracts have less protection than in the past.

For me, socialism has always been about liberty and solidarity, but also about responsibility.

Fundamentally, American society is composed of individuals who don't go out of their way to do each other favours.

I cannot resign myself to the decline of Europe, and of France.

I had to think whether, after 50 years of hard slog, I was still lucid and fresh enough for the job.

If you don't have collective agreements between unions and employers, governments have to legislate more.

The driving force behind the liberal counter-offensive in Europe has been a reaction against irresponsibility.

The European model is in danger if we obliterate the principle of personal responsibility.

The unions may continue to decline, but if they do, it'll be their fault.

Therefore one should speak at the same time of national citizenship and wider European citizenship.

This weakening is worsened by the widening distance between the governed and their governments.

Yes, the European model remains superior to that of America and Japan.

I would not be opposed to devising a new system of pensions, in which one part was based on collective provision, but which also gave incentives for people to take out an additional, personal plan.

My presidential victory, if it had happened, would have been artificial in relation to the Socialist party. It may be that on my deathbed, I will come to regret my decision, but for the moment, I live at peace with it.