Emmanuel Macron

I am not a socialist.

The strategy we must follow is to defend the special relationship between Great Britain and Europe and, more specifically, between Europe and France.

I want to become the president of all the people of France - the president of the patriots in the face of the threat from the nationalists.

Under the French system, you have to take into consideration that every five years, the president is directly elected by the people. He's the one that has the legitimacy.

Really, creation and innovation are part of the French DNA.

We are implementing an in-depth reform on labor market, not to reduce rights for workers but to provide more visibility and more efficiency to investors and employers because it's the key for job creation.

I touched the limits of our political system, which pushes one to last-minute compromises. Explanations are rarely given. It plays to people's fears because it hasn't built an ideological consensus. It produces flawed solutions and too often ignores reality.

There is no access to the market without budgetary contributions... and without respect for the four freedoms of the E.U.

We have to accept the idea that Europe will be made on a two-speed basis, with a union based on solidarity and differentiation.

Historically speaking, the French economy was largely driven by the demand side.

Europe and the world are waiting for us to defend the spirit of Enlightenment, threatened in so many places.

Leaving the E.U. would mean the 'Guernseyfication' of the U.K., which would then be a little country on the world scale. It would isolate itself and become a trading post and arbitration place at Europe's border.

France has to reform, to recover, and get more competitiveness.

I want France to become the European hub for R&D.

To avoid the trap of Europe fragmenting on the economy, security, and identity, we have to return to the original promises of the European project: peace, prosperity and freedom. We should have a real, adult, democratic debate about the Europe we want.

I have a vision of my country, and I cannot sit and watch things pass by.

When you discuss your steel industry with China you are credible because you are part of the E.U., not because you are just U.K. You will be completely killed otherwise. You will never be in the situation to negotiate face to face with the Chinese because your domestic market is not relevant for the Chinese in comparison with their domestic market.

When the president and the prime minister decide to implement reforms, they have all the measures they need to pass them and enforce them.

The only way governments or would-be governments respond to ills these days is by seeking to lower the temperature... and that tends to mean public spending.

We can't have our industry progressively destroyed by cheap Chinese imports.