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Telecoms is a national business. There isn't a European market. There's no Telecom Italia in France.

France has a specificity - the market players who provide Internet access are the telecom operators, and all of the players are French. They had a habit of, let's say, getting along with each other, and the prices traditionally were very high.

France has a very important relationship with Germany. But that does not mean that we agree about everything or that two of our universities or companies are not going to compete.

A lot of companies are global.

Every country in the world protects its economy except the E.U. We would restore economic sovereignty and decision-making to France. We would protect strategic industries, and we would protect vital areas such as the energy sector. But we would not cut ourselves from the world. There could still be trade.

Frankly, I don't know how many companies there are, globally, which are truly global.

France and Germany have the manufacturing and skill base which is useful to us. France is our dependable strategic partner.

France wants Britain to remain in the E.U.; indeed, how can we imagine that friendly nation that is our ally and played a role on the international stage could be outside the E.U.?

U.S. companies rely on the European market for more than half of their global foreign profits.