France

Former permanent undersecretary at the Foreign Office and former UK ambassador to France

18 Sep 2021 11 4

Jean-Yves Le Drian

Inserted 2 years ago

“The agreement project initiated by the US and Australia was decided by a small group and I'm not sure US and Australian ministers knew about it. When we see the US president with the Australian prime minister announce a new agreement, with Boris Johnson, the breach of trust is profound. In a real alliance you talk to each other, you don't hide things, you respect the other party, and that is why this is a real crisis.”

Foreign Minister of France

18 Sep 2021 5 4

Jean-Pierre Thebault

Inserted 2 years ago

“I think this has been a huge mistake, a very, very bad handling of the partnership - because it wasn't a contract, it was a partnership that was supposed to be based on trust, mutual understanding and sincerity. I would like to run into a time machine, if possible, and be in a situation where we don't end up in such an incredible, clumsy, inadequate un-Australian situation. I'm very sad to be forced to leave, albeit there needs to be some reassessment to be made.”

France ambassador to Australia

18 Sep 2021 1 3

Peter Ricketts

Inserted 2 years ago

“Don't underestimate reaction in Paris. It's not just anger but a real sense of betrayal that UK as well as US and Australia negotiated behind their backs for 6 months. I lived the rupture in 2003 over Iraq. This feels as bad or worse.”

Former permanent undersecretary at the Foreign Office and former UK ambassador to France

17 Sep 2021 5 5

Jean-Yves Le Drian

Inserted 2 years ago

“This exceptional decision is justified because of the exceptional seriousness of the announcements made on 15 September by Australia and the United States.”

Foreign Minister of France

17 Sep 2021 2 3

Pierre Morcos

Inserted 2 years ago

“Reassuring words such as those heard yesterday from Secretary Blinken [Antony Blinken] are not enough for Paris - especially after French authorities learned that this agreement was months in the making.”

Visiting fellow at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies

17 Sep 2021 6 3

Jean-Yves Le Drian

Inserted 2 years ago

“The abandonment of the submarine project ... and the announcement of a new partnership with the United States aiming at launching new studies for future possible nuclear propulsion cooperation is unacceptable behaviour between allies. The consequences touch the very concept that we have of alliances, our partnerships and the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe.”

Foreign Minister of France

17 Sep 2021 5 3

Jean-Yves Le Drian

Inserted 2 years ago

“This brutal, unilateral and unpredictable decision reminds me a lot of what Mr Trump used to do. This isn't done between allies.”

Foreign Minister of France

16 Sep 2021 4 2

Jean-Yves Le Drian

Inserted 2 years ago

“The American choice, which leads to the removal of an ally and a European partner such as France from a longstanding partnership with Australia, at a time when we are facing unprecedented challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, whether on our values or on respect for multilateralism based on the rule of law, marks an absence of coherence that France can only observe and regret.”

Foreign Minister of France

16 Sep 2021 4 4

Pierre Haski

Inserted 2 years ago

“Hidalgo's [Anne Hidalgo] background is one of her main selling points. She is putting forward her personal story as this daughter of a working-class Spanish immigrant [family] who has made it to become the mayor of Paris, the world-class capital in the country. So that's the kind of achievement that she is promoting, saying I want everybody else to have the same kind of opportunities that I have had. She has a programme … against inequality, more education, more social assistance for the poor. One of the weaknesses of her candidacy is that being the mayor of Paris obviously gives her a lot of visibility and importance, but it's also a handicap. Outside Paris, people resent the centrality of the capital, and they resent what they see as the arrogance from Parisians, so being the mayor of Paris is not necessarily the best asset.”

French journalist, co-founder of Rue 89

12 Sep 2021 2 4

Emmanuel Macron

Inserted 2 years ago

“There are some discussions to see how flights could be re-established. What we have proposed, and what we plan to bring to the U.N. Security Council along with Britain and Germany is a solution that we have used before in other operations, which would involve creating a zone allowing people to arrive at that airport.”

President of France

28 Aug 2021 4 3

Emmanuel Macron

Inserted 2 years ago

“No matter what choices the Americans make, we will maintain our presence in Iraq to fight against terrorism.”

Rferl

President of France

28 Aug 2021 2 3

Emmanuel Macron

Inserted 2 years ago

“The European Union decided in March last year to start negotiations with your country and now is the time to concretize that decision and France actively supports it. North Macedonia deserves to start negotiations without delay. I am personally involved in finding a solution with Bulgaria,.”

Europeanwesternbalkans

President of France

11 Jun 2021 4 4

Emmanuel Macron

Inserted 2 years ago

“We have deep disagreements [with Turkish President Erdogan], and we know it. We have had controversies sometimes, and we accept them. But no matter what the disagreements, we always have to talk. We both wanted it. I think it's a good thing. We need to see each other and engage in dialogue.”

Balkaneu

President of France

10 Jun 2021 4 1

Emmanuel Macron

Inserted 2 years ago

“Radical Islamism in Mali with our soldiers there? Never. There is this temptation today in Mali. But if it goes in that direction, I will withdraw.”

President of France

30 May 2021 2 3

Stanislas Guerini

Inserted 3 years ago

“Wearing ostentatious religious symbols on a campaign document is not compatible with the values of LREM [La République En Marche]. Either these candidates change their photo, or LREM will withdraw its support.”

Executive Officer of the French political party La République En Marche!

10 May 2021 2 3

Michel Barnier

Inserted 3 years ago

“There is a risk of an explosion, particularly on the topic of immigration. We need to introduce a moratorium on immigration. We need to take time to evaluate, check and if necessary, change our immigration policies. We need to take stock of the situation, stop family reunions. We need to look at the way we give residency permits, health-related permits and the way we use the resources of our [benefits agency]. We need to take the time to build a national consensus on these issues.”

Former Brexit negotiator

09 May 2021 1 1

Emmanuel Macron

Inserted 3 years ago

“The Anglo-Saxons must first stop their export bans. I am calling very clearly on the U.S. to end their export ban of vaccines and components that prevent production. CureVac says it can't produce in Europe because components are blocked in the U.S. … So lift the export ban - lift it, on the ingredients and the vaccines. And, secondly, liberate the doses. If we want to work quickly, today there isn't one factory in the world that can't produce doses for poor countries because of intellectual property. The priority today is not intellectual property - it's not true. We would be lying to ourselves. It's production.”

President of France

08 May 2021 8 2

Clement Beaune

Inserted 3 years ago

“I cannot say to you when we will be able to resume travel within Europe. I hope it will be possible this summer. We're doing all we can so that travel can resume between French regions, and then Europe hopefully by the summer, but I cannot today give you a fixed calendar.”

French Minister of State for European Affairs

11 Apr 2021 3 3

Jean-Yves Le Drian

Inserted 3 years ago

“I encouraged Iran to be constructive in the discussions that are set to take place. They are meant to help identify in the coming weeks the steps that will be needed in order to return to full compliance with the nuclear deal.”

Rferl

Foreign Minister of France

03 Apr 2021 1 2

Jean-Yves Le Drian

Inserted 3 years ago

“The UK is proud to have vaccinated many people with the first dose, but they will have a problem with the second dose. And we are fully vaccinated with two doses, not one. Today we have the same number of fully vaccinated people in France and the United Kingdom. A cooperative relationship must be found with the UK so that AstraZeneca fulfils its signed commitments with the EU, but we can't accept any sort of blackmail. The UK is pushing for the first jab, knowing there will be problems with the second one. Europe does not have to pay the price for this policy.”

Foreign Minister of France

26 Mar 2021 6 4

Loïc Tregoures

Inserted 3 years ago

“In France, there is this pro-EU argument to be against enlargement. This is probably what president Macron thinks, which is why the new methodology is not enough per se, although we do not know how it will be implemented. It can only work if everyone plays fair – candidates but also all the members. [Recalling the Croatia's accession to the EU] No one could say that the political, social, financial, or demographic balance in the EU changed by an inch after Croatia integrated and that the same would work for Montenegro or North Macedonia. As far as [French] public opinion is concerned – it is true that Macron would not lose one vote by opening negotiations with Albania or North Macedonia, but the fact that they believed the opposite despite every evidence, matters.”

Europeanwesternbalkans

PhD in Political Science and Balkans specialist

05 Mar 2021 4 3

Jean-Louis Falconi

Inserted 3 years ago

“This promise has not been made to any other region. France has been fighting very hard not to make a similar promise to any other region. The position of France has been very clear on this matter. We intend to fulfil this sincere promise. It is not a very fair negotiation, and we can say that it is not a negotiation – if you want to get into the EU, some requirements need to be fulfilled. The dynamic starts from a deliberate political will of the parties to start negotiations.”

Europeanwesternbalkans

Ambassador of France to Serbia

05 Mar 2021 4 4

Emmanuel Macron

Inserted 3 years ago

“If we announce billions today to supply doses in six months, eight months, a year, our friends in Africa will, under justified pressure from their people, buy doses from the Chinese and the Russians. And the strength of the West will be a concept, and not a reality.”

President of France

19 Feb 2021 4 2

Emmanuel Macron

Inserted 3 years ago

“The Navalny case is a very serious situation. I advocate ongoing dialogue because you have to deal with your history and geography. Russia is part of Europe.”

President of France

05 Feb 2021 2 3

Emmanuel Macron

Inserted 3 years ago

“The real problem on AstraZeneca is that it doesn’t work the way we were expecting it to. We’re waiting for the EMA [European Medicines Agency] results, but today everything points to thinking it is quasi-ineffective on people older than 65, some say those 60 years or older.”

President of France

29 Jan 2021 3 3

Jean Castex

Inserted 3 years ago

“We know the grave impact (of a lockdown). Tonight, looking at the data of the past few days, we consider that we can still give ourselves a chance to avoid one. Our duty is to do all we can to avoid a new lockdown, the coming days will be crucial.”

French Prime Minister

29 Jan 2021 2 2

Jean-François Delfraissy

Inserted 3 years ago

“We probably need to go towards a confinement. Whether that needs to be a very strict confinement like the first one in March or a softer form like in November, that is a political decision. If we do not tighten regulations, we will find ourselves in an extremely difficult situation from mid-March.”

President of the scientific council that advises the French government on the virus

24 Jan 2021 2 1

Bruno Le Maire

Inserted 3 years ago

“What shocks me is that Twitter is the one to close his account. The regulation of the digital world cannot be done by the digital oligarchy.”

Finance Minister of France

11 Jan 2021 3 1

Emmanuel Macron

Inserted 3 years ago

“The unity and strength of Europe paid off. The agreement with the United Kingdom is essential to protect our citizens, our fishermen, our producers. We will make sure that this is the case.”

President of France

24 Dec 2020 5 2

Hussein Baoumi

Inserted 3 years ago

“Macron’s message sends a very dangerous message to Egypt, because it’s basically reiterating that actual cooperation between the two countries won’t be impacted by the human rights situation in Egypt. It’s also a very dangerous message because from the Egyptian government’s point of view, 'counterterrorism' means arresting peaceful human rights defenders, it means arresting peaceful protesters, it means subjecting them to very dire conditions, it means enforcing disappearances and it means torture in order to extract confessions.”

Amnesty International’s Egypt and Libya researcher

07 Dec 2020 3 3

Emmanuel Macron

Inserted 3 years ago

“I won’t make our defence and economic cooperation conditional upon these [human rights] disagreements. I think it is more effective to have a policy of dialogue than a policy of boycott, which would reduce the effectiveness of one of our partners in the fight against terrorism and for regional stability.”

President of France

07 Dec 2020 2 4

Clement Beaune

Inserted 3 years ago

“We know that 100 percent access to fishing waters in the UK maritime zone is finished. But we need lasting access. The British can’t have total access to our EU single market and exclude fish.”

French Minister of State for European Affairs

06 Dec 2020 4 2

Emmanuel Macron

Inserted 3 years ago

“We need to avoid at all costs a scenario of a two-speed world where only the richer can protect themselves against the virus and restart normal lives.”

President of France

21 Nov 2020 4 3

Emmanuel Macron

Inserted 3 years ago

“I understand the sentiments being expressed and I respect them. But you must understand my role right now, it’s to do two things: to promote calm and also to protect these rights. I will always defend in my country the freedom to speak, to write, to think, to draw.”

President of France

31 Oct 2020 4 4

Yasser Louati

Inserted 3 years ago

“A woman was beheaded inside a church, this means these people have nothing to do with the sacred. There are no moral boundaries for them. About 750 people were killed in mosques across the world, why can’t we connect the dots and see that this ideology has been spreading that we lost so far the battle of ideas. We deal with these attacks as if they were separate from one another when they are not.”

French civil rights activist

30 Oct 2020 0 1

Emmanuel Macron

Inserted 3 years ago

“Our country suffered an Islamist terrorist attack. It is very clearly France that is attacked — at the same time we had a French consular site attacked in Saudi Arabia, in Jeddah, at the same time arrests were being made on our territory. I want to first and foremost express the support of the entire nation to Catholics in France and elsewhere. The whole nation stands by their side.”

President of France

29 Oct 2020 5 2

Jean-François Delfraissy

Inserted 3 years ago

“There probably are more than 50,000 new cases every day. Our estimate at the Scientific Council is closer to 100,000 – twice as many. Between those who aren’t tested and asymptomatic patients, we’re close to that number of cases. This means the virus is spreading extremely fast.”

Apnews

President of the scientific council that advises the French government on the virus

26 Oct 2020 3 3

Emmanuel Macron

Inserted 3 years ago

“Islam is a religion that is in crisis all over the world today, we are not just seeing this in our country. Secularism is the cement of a united France.”

President of France

02 Oct 2020 3 3

Emmanuel Macron

Inserted 3 years ago

“We are witnessing a power crisis in Belarus with an authoritarian administration that is not able to accept the logic of democracy. It is clear that Lukashenko must go.”