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.
Clinton and Gore told me that they were elected in order to bring some compassion to this society. But they have not managed to change much.
Contrary to what people say, my wife never turned me away from the presidency. She told me to reflect on it and do what I wanted.
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 am being careful not to disperse my energies, so that, when the right moment comes, I can intervene by putting the right question.
I cannot resign myself to thi 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.
I thought that I wouldn't have been able to get my ideas implemented. It wasn't simply about whether I could win.
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.
If you don't have collective agreements between unions and employers, governments have to legislate more.
It is impossible to speak of citizenship in Europe without posing the question of the current weakening of democracy within each of our countries.
Meanwhile, because decisions become more and more complex, this favours the emergence of experts, bureaucrats and technocrats.
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.
My problem is how to find the best way of being useful.
Swedish social democracy used to be my ideal model, yet by the 1980s their state had started to take 56 per cent of national income.
The bloodshed emptied us of our energy and resources, and we have never been able to regain the influence that had been ours.
The countries that share this conception should be able to go further together, without excluding the others, since they can still live in a greater community of exchange and co-operation.
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 European model is, first, a social and economic system founded on the role of the market, for no computer in the world can process information better than the market.
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.
The problem with a purely collective system is not only that it requires economic growth, and the right sort of demographic trends, but that it prevents people thinking about their futures in a responsible way.
The real problem, which our contemporaries by and large do not see, is that Europe has been in historical decline since the First World War.
The unions may continue to decline, but if they do, it'll be their fault.
The unions still have a job to do, representing their members' interests to governments and parliaments. And I think collective agreements still have a role, alongside markets and laws.
Therefore one should speak at the same time of national citizenship and wider European citizenship.
These days there are not enough of such intermediary groups, between the state and the individual, with the result that political leaders are often unduly guided by opinion polls.
This desire for equity must not lead to an excess of welfare, where nobody is responsible for anything.
This weakening is worsened by the widening distance between the governed and their governments.
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.
Yes, the European model remains superior to that of America and Japan.
Yes, though these days you can't just fix things with a quick meeting of ministers, party leaders and trade unionists, like Monnet did.
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