Emmanuel Macron Quotes
President
Brexit is the other face of the refugee crisis - tensions that lead to stasis, external risks that lead to asymmetric shocks.
We're not isolated from the world. The world knocks on our door.
I am not just a liberal movement. I come from the progressive Left. I am trying to refresh and counter the system.
Modernity is disruptive, and I endorse that.
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.
My key message is be innovative, be ambitious; think global and big on day one.
I don't want a tailor-made approach where the British have the best of two worlds. That will be too big an incentive for others to leave and kill the European idea, which is based on shared responsibilities.
Without investment, you cannot have jobs.
We have to provide more visibility, more certainty to the investors and reduce the cost of failure.
When politics is no longer a mission but a profession, politicians become more self-serving than public servants.
I am attached to a strict approach to Brexit: I respect the British vote, but the worst thing would be a sort of weak E.U. vis-a-vis the British.
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 have the force, the energy, and the determination, and we will not give in to fear.
You have to learn to fight for things, to bear the burden and have a life which does not in any way correspond to other peoples' lives.
The state has an offensive and defensive role to play as promoter of industrial policies, as regulator and as shareholder.
You can block a marriage, but you cannot force a marriage.
Globalization can be a great opportunity.
Popularity isn't my compass. Unless it can help one to act, to be understood... that's what counts.
When the president and the prime minister decide to implement reforms, they have all the measures they need to pass them and enforce them.
I realised how much the system did not want to change.
Really, creation and innovation are part of the French DNA.
The status quo leads to self-destruction.
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.
I don't have luxurious tastes or great needs, but my independence is worth a lot to me.
We need people who dream impossible things, who maybe fail, sometimes succeed, but in any case who have that ambition.
A Left that does nothing achieves nothing.
You need basically some accountability rules, which means democratic checks and balances at the euro zone level, and definitely, you have to increase convergence in terms of taxes, in terms of social affairs and so on.
I will fight with all my power against the divisions that undermine us and which are tearing us apart.
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 am a newcomer. I want to remain a newcomer. That is my DNA.
I'm a child of provincial France.
If I was British, I would vote resolutely 'remain' because it's in the U.K.'s interest.
It's about our ability precisely to integrate a people and offer jobs, and that, for me, is one of the key rationales of the reforms I'm pushing, and I'm a strong believer in that when you lift barriers, when you deregulate a lot of stuff, basically you improve the equality of opportunities.
France has to reform, to recover, and get more competitiveness.
We can't fix the real problems if we only cauterize and don't treat the roots of evil.
I want to be the president of all the people of France, for the patriots facing the threat of nationalism.
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.
Historically speaking, the French economy was largely driven by the demand side.
I come all wreathed in a reputation the press has made for me. Judge me on my actions. That's all that counts.
As to the euro zone avant-garde, it must go towards more solidarity and integration: a common budget, a common borrowing capability, and fiscal convergence.
I am not a socialist.
The refugee crisis shows we can't be isolated from the world's geopolitical troubles.
If the U.K. wants a commercial access treaty to the European market, the British must contribute to the European budget like the Norwegians and the Swiss do. If London doesn't want that, then it must be a total exit.
What we need is much more flexibility for the labour markets.
France has to accelerate in terms of reform.
Believe in individual initiatives, in courage, in risk.
To create greater convergence, we need more intergration.
I learned the life of business, commerce - it's an art.
The refugee crisis is a challenge for the whole of Europe, and Europe - it's a very fair point to say it's not just a security issue. It's also an economic issue.
If people do not believe in Europe and in the euro area, it must be dismantled.
De facto, you have a multi-speed Europe. You look at the Schengen, you look at the euro zone, all this kind of cooperations, you have a multi-speed Europe.
Honesty compels me to say that I am not a socialist. But so what?
If approval was a criterion in this country, nothing would ever get done.
The functioning of our society is in a certain way sclerotic.
Sovereignty is not just at the national level; that's the mistake of Brexit that other people make.
The best way to afford a suit is to work.
We need to restore democracy and sovereignty in Europe.
What we need is a common goal for more Europe.
France is back.
We need to go faster on structural reforms in France.
We back Hinkley Point project. It's very important for France; it's very important for the nuclear sector and EDF.
What matters to me is to find rational solutions for those that are facing difficulties so that France preserves jobs and its ability to innovate.
The financial passport is part of full access to the E.U. market, and a precondition for that is the contribution to the E.U. budget. That has been the case in Norway and in Switzerland. That is clear.
I want France to become the European hub for R&D.
We have the eurozone. Could we accept to be cleared, regulated, and de facto have inflows and outflows from a country that has decided to leave the E.U.? For me, definitely not.
We have to be extremely strict on the implementation of Brexit so there is a common approach between member states. We must avoid a sector-by-sector or country-by-country approach, and ask the U.K. to be clear.
The doctors, whether based in Brussels or Paris, draw the same conclusions and write the same prescriptions.
A romantic or classical view of the French approach would have been to say, 'It's a French company; let no one attack it. Let's block any merger. But the reality is Alcatel-Lucent is not a French company; it's a global company. Its main markets are China and the U.S. Its ownership is foreign; most of its managers aren't French.
We have a huge responsibility to make sure that Europe remains a prosperous and peaceful continent.
Europe's younger generation has only experienced austerity.
You can suddenly have a series of countries waking up and saying, 'I want the same status as the Brits,' which will be, de facto, the dismantling of the rest of Europe.
I'm not a movie star, and I don't want to become a movie star.
You need a debate and a vote on the principles: Do you want more Europe or less Europe? Do you believe we are more efficient with defense and security with Europe, or not? Do you believe we are more efficient for our companies with or without Europe? Those are the questions we have to discuss and push our people to vote on it.
Popularity isn't an objective in itself. I'm not in this game.
Even if the Brits decide to remain, we will have to avoid a contagion on other countries.
We should not replicate the situation where one country is in a situation to hijack the rest of Europe because they organize a referendum.
We need young Frenchmen who want to become billionaires.
I push reforms. I tell the truth to people, even when it's tough for the country.
I kept trying, proposing, pushing... If you want to succeed, you cannot leave work half done, and unfortunately, many things were left half done. The choice was made not to launch a second wave of economic reforms that I was proposing.
We've created rigidities at the entrance point in artisanal occupations.
E.U. is the first global domestic market.
I am from the Left, but I am happy to work with people from the Right.
Consolidation means less equipment, less networks, and less jobs.
In a common project, we can bring together well-meaning people from the Left and the Right.
My priority is my economy minister mandate and to create momentum.
To think that our political organisation is immutable is the best way to hand the country over to the extremes.
We have a lack of growth in Europe, in eurozone, and in France, and we are struggling hard to recover and restore this growth.
I have a vision of my country, and I cannot sit and watch things pass by.
We have to breathe new life into Europe.
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.
I'm in a left-wing government, unashamedly... but I also want to work with people from the Right who commit to the same values.
We ask our companies to restructure; we ask employees to work more for less money because there is overproduction, but then we're unable to defend them from cheaper Chinese imports. We are insane.
France is a strong, wealthy country.
I have decided to create a new political movement.
We can't have our industry progressively destroyed by cheap Chinese imports.
We have to shift the social model from a lot of formal protections toward loosening bottlenecks in the economy.
I don't believe that killing the French model in order to become the U.K. or the United States overnight is the solution. You have a big debate on inequality there, and for our society, a lot of inequality would not be bearable.
We have no choice but to reform this country.
We will open a new bunch of reforms regarding the labor market to make it simpler and adaptable, more flexible.
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.