Top 171 Quotes & Sayings by Francois Hollande
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a French statesman Francois Hollande.
Last updated on April 14, 2025.
I am attached to the French language. I will defend the ubiquitous use of French.
France, because it was attacked cowardly, shamelessly, violently, France will be merciless against the barbarians of Daesh.
When I took part in European leaders summits, it was sometimes unpleasant for me to hear Romanian, Polish, Portuguese, and Italian friends speak English, although I admit that on an informal basis, first contacts can be made in this language. Nevertheless, I will defend everywhere the use of the French language.
My obligation, if I become president, is to give another direction to Europe than the one that is being forced upon us today.
A country outside the euro zone cannot have a veto over countries in the euro zone.
Long live the Republic, and long live France.
I am the president of the youth of France.
I support the French team - I go to all their matches - but I don't want to use sport for politics. That's not good for sport or for politics.
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.
I could have made a fortune in cheeseburgers, but I finally chose politics.
I am proud to have been capable of giving people hope again.
What the French want is coherence, stability and justice. If I am in a favorable position today, it's because my fellow citizens want to make the effort to straighten out the country, and at the same time they want it to be just and equitable.
Is France a northern European export powerhouse, or a Mediterranean indebted and dependent economy? Yes to both.
Everyone says Francois Mitterrand had huge charisma. But before he was president they used to call him badly dressed, old, archaic and say he knew nothing about the economy... until the day he was elected. It's called universal suffrage. When you're elected, you become the person that embodies France.
I'm going to gather all the French people who want change.
I can understand countries don't want to join the euro, but they cannot impede the consolidation and strengthening of the eurozone.
I gave myself an objective, to be the second president from Correze and finally to be the successor to Francois Mitterrand.
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 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.
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.
There is just one France... one single nation, united in the same destiny.
We need the help of other member countries and leaders who, like us, want to see a change in Europe's direction. That's also my logic when I tell voters that electing me president will not only shape France's future, but also initiate change across all of Europe.
Each country has a soul, and France's soul is equality.
I bow down in memory of the victims, and I come to tell my Armenian friends that we will never forget the tragedies that your people has endured.
France has been struck on the day of her national holiday - the 14th of July, Bastille Day - the symbol of liberty, because human rights are denied by fanatics, and France is clearly their target.
The transatlantic relationship is vital for both our countries: France will remain a reliable ally of the United States. Nevertheless, ally does not mean aligned.
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.
Being in the European Union has its advantages, and I think that is what the British are beginning to understand, what those who are tempted by the Brexit are going to reflect upon.
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.
One thing that makes France different from other countries is the tradition of social solidarity. People from all backgrounds and political positions are willing to contribute for services and protection of society as a whole - but on the condition that money is being spent effectively and that everyone is paying their part.
I commit myself 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.
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.
Though Africa is not responsible for emitting greenhouse gases, it is suffering the consequences of climate change.
What is happening in the Sahel for the past several months is that terrorists have structured themselves, have installed themselves. It's not simply a menace for west Africa.
France isn't just any country in Europe, and its president is not an ordinary leader in the world. Sometimes directing or leading the way is not enough, he has to initiate policies, as Nicolas Sarkozy was able to demonstrate during his term.
I want to initiate a change in society in the long term.
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.
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.
Austerity need not be Europe's fate.
We find ourselves in a difficult situation in Europe. There's a crisis, weak growth, unemployment... my duty is to ensure that by the end of my mandate France is in a better state than it was at the beginning.
Europe needs an engine, and the Franco-German motor has provided that when the two nations have converged on important topics during critical periods. But that partnership shouldn't be a directorate for other EU members.
During a term in office there are highs and lows, but what counts is that the goal is set as well as the means to achieve it, and the force we put into getting results.
Nothing was given to me, nothing was entrusted to me, nothing was assigned to me. Everything I have, I took by right.
My adversary is the world of finance.
We are a big country, with lots of advantages and history. We are proud to be French. We have to call on patriotism at this time... to ask for an effort in the battle against debt.
I don't want to drive the markets crazy. I don't want to create trouble, but rather order and rules and norms. We have to struggle against financial excesses, those who speculate with sovereign debt, those who develop financial products which have done so much harm.
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.
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.
In my own situation, I cannot show anything... And I believe that everybody now understands that, president or not president, one is entitled to have a private life. But of course when one is president, this creates duties and obligations.
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.
That is now my mission: to provide a European vision of growth, employment, prosperity - in one word, our future.
There's always a risk when the candidate becomes president: Will he deliver what is expected of him?
A jolt is necessary. Europe must reaffirm it values of freedom, solidarity, peace. The EU must be understood and controlled by its citizens. I will do everything to secure profound change rather than decline.
Between France and Senegal there's a history. There's a language that we both speak. There's a culture that we share and to which both of our peoples have contributed. But beyond our history, beyond our language, beyond the links that have united us for so long, what unites us today is the future.
We have chased away the clouds, the sky is all 'rose.'
The concept of the terrorists is to plunge our country into division.
An education program is, by definition, a societal program. Work should be done at school, rather than at home.
People are tired of constant movement, improvisation, and wild scrambling when plans fail.
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.
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