TV interview

French President Emmanuel Macron appeared in a lengthy interview on national television on Thursday, speaking from a school classroom in a village in north-west France, when he said that despite protests over his railways reforms, and also growing opposition to reforms of university selection procedures and the justice system, he and his government will stand firm with its policies 'because the world around us is speeding up, going through great changes, and because our country must be able to choose its destiny and live better'.

In a recorded television interview broadcast on Sunday by the France 2 channel, French President Emmanuel Macron said that following the rout of the so-called Islamic State group in Iraq 'I think that by the middle to the end of February, we will have won the war in Syria', adding that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad 'will have to respond to his crimes before his people, before the international courts'.

In his first major live interview on French television, French President Emmanuel Macron dismissed criticism that his policies were in favour of the wealthy, arguing that 'for our society to get better, we need people who succeed, we shouldn’t be jealous of them'.

The French president, speaking in a TV interview on Sunday, said a bonus will be paid to part-time workers to help jobless return to activity.

'Being just a spectator would have been an act of abandonment' declared the former French president in a primetime TV interview on Sunday.

The French president, in a lengthy prime-time television interview Thursday evening, vowed to create growth but forecast continuing jobless rise.

In a TV interview Thursday evening, President Sarkozy warned of further budget cuts ahead, and said Greek entry into eurozone was an "error".