Nicolas Sarkozy: Victory speech excerpts

Mr Sarkozy said he would be president of all the French

The winning candidate in the French presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy, gave a victory speech in a Paris concert hall shortly after the first results were announced.

My dear compatriots, as I speak to you this evening, at this time which, as everyone understands, is exceptional in a man's life, I feel enormous, sincere, deep emotion. From a very young age I have felt incredible pride at belonging to a great, an old, a beautiful nation, that of France.

I love France as you love someone dear, someone that has given me everything. Now it is my turn to give back to France what France has given me...

My thoughts are with Ms Royal... I want to tell her that I have respect for her and for her ideas in which so many French people saw their own ideas reflected. Respecting Ms Royal is respecting the millions of French who voted for her. A president of the Republic must love all the French whatever their opinions.

National pride

My thoughts therefore go to all of the French who did not vote for me. I want to tell them that beyond the political battle, beyond the differences of opinion, for me there is only one France. I want to tell them that I will be the president of all the French people, that I will speak for each one of them. I want to tell them that this evening it is not the victory of one kind of France against another...

The French people have spoken and have chosen to make a break with the ideas, the customs and the behaviour of the past. I am thus going to restore the status of work, authority, standards, respect, merit. I am going to give the place of honour back to the nation and national identity. I am going to give back to the French people pride in France...

Getting France moving

The French people have opted for change. I shall be implementing this change because this is the mandate I have received from the people and because France needs it - but I shall do this with all of the French people. I shall do it in a spirit of unity and in a spirit of fraternity. I shall do it in such a way that no one is left with the feeling of being excluded, of being left to one side.

I call on all the French, irrespective of their party, their beliefs, their origins, to join with me to ensure that France gets moving again. I call on each person not to allow himself or herself to be enveloped in intolerance and sectarianism, but to open up to others, to those who have different ideas, to those who hold other beliefs.

'Back in Europe'

I want to issue an appeal to our European partners, to whom our destiny is profoundly linked, to tell them that my whole life I have been a European, that I believe deeply, that I believe sincerely in European construction, and that tonight France is back in Europe. But I entreat our European partners to hear the voice of the people who want to be protected.

I entreat our European partners not to remain deaf to the anger of people who perceive the European Union not as a source of protection but as the Trojan horse of all the threats that come with the changes in the world.

America and climate change

I want to issue an appeal to our American friends, to tell them that they can count on our friendship, which has been forged in the tragedies of history which we have faced together.

I want to tell them that France will always be by their side when they need it, but I also want to tell them that friendship means accepting that your friends may think differently and that a great nation such as the United States has a duty not to put obstacles in the way of the fight against global warming, but on the contrary to take the lead in this fight, because what is at stake is the fate of humanity as a whole. France will make this battle its primary battle.

The Mediterranean and Africa

I want to issue a call to all the people of the Mediterranean to tell them that it is in the Mediterranean that everything is going to be played out, that we have to overcome all kinds of hatred to pave the way for a great dream of peace and a great dream of civilization. I want to tell them that the time has come to build together a Mediterranean union that will form a link between Europe and Africa.

What was done for the union of Europe 60 years ago, we are going to do today for the union of the Mediterranean.

I want to issue a call to all Africans, a brotherly call, to tell Africa that we want to help it, to help Africa to vanquish illness, to vanquish famine, to vanquish poverty, to live in peace. I want to tell them that we are going to work together on decisions concerning a policy of controlled immigration and a policy of ambitious development.

Tolerance and tyranny

I want to issue a call to everyone in the world who believes in the values of tolerance, freedom, democracy, humanism, to all those who are persecuted by tyranny, by dictatorships. I want to tell all of the children throughout the world, all of the ill-treated women throughout the world - I want to tell them that it will be France's pride and its duty to be at their side.

France will be at the side of the Libyan nurses [Bulgarian nurses imprisoned in Libya], imprisoned for eight years. France will not abandon Ingrid Betancourt [held by Farc rebels in Colombia]. France will not abandon the women condemned to wear the burqa. France will not abandon the women who do not have freedom. France will be on the side of the oppressed of the world. This is France's message, it is France's identity, it is France's history.