[applause]

[speaking french] [applause] connect ladies and gentlemen good afternoon i am glad to be at the town hall event honoring the president of the republic of with the culmination of his first visit to the united states but the first day visit under the trump administration. our friendship between the united states and france extend back to the origins of this country with france being the very first friend of the united states and the world.

therefore i ask you please stand when president macron is announced. now i will explain the guidelines for the brief opening remarks we will receive questions from the audience so please raise your hand and i as a moderator will call you then one of the designated student wearing a shirt has a microphone you will come to them in the nearest aisle. by practice when i give lectures he will have gender parity. when called upon please ask your question, state your name with your program of study and make sure stand until answered question should be brief about one minute and should end with

a? [laughter] a statement is not a question. convert your statement in to a question i can help you with that. [laughter] keep your questions in groups of three and he will answer them. before we welcome our distinguished guest i would like to think the president of george washington university for his vision and support to make this historic event possible. president macron 17th president -- holding a phd in computer science with the state university of new york. as you can tell extending back

to france so with a special guest today ladies and gentlemen please give a warm welcome to president of george washington university. thematic thank you for being here today this is a historic occasion i am delighted we are hosting this event where students will have a chance right here in the nation's capital we would like president macron to know we have 25 students from france studying here in the audience today. universities like yours washington play a critical role to have debate and discourse that is exactly

exactly what the event that she ventures about juliet is a gw moment i know all of the students will show president macron with the next generation of thoughtful leaders motivated individuals look like here in the united states. and what is sure to be a thought for lawful discussion so please join me to welcome the president of the republic of france, president macron. [applause] [applause]

and i thank you very much for the welcome. thank you mr. president with a warm welcome and for organizing very much and trying to moderate. an extremely knowledgeable and very pleased and directly to

into your question i don't want to make a long speech and to be direct i'll do my best but thank you very much for being here and also to the university thank you very much. thank you. [applause] >> if you have a question is raised.

the neck is global issue we care a lot about not only the discovery of hiv but today those foundation with that critique from making 88? on your presidency either that spiritually? >> please state your name and program. >> hello. my name is michael ames a student of secondary education.

today both countries have unusual strife in the public sector and so my question is in your opinion is it appropriate for public-sector boys such as teachers of the railway employees when is it appropriate to go on strike and when is a government responsibility? >> hello. i'm a political science student here at gw. and president trump has talked about pulling out of area one -- syria it is the french duty for that leadership role.

thank you. >> thank you very much. but again the civil strife which could be a variable. i do believe the expression of democracy. and then to demonstrate the organizers. but with the democracies and

with minority ideas. because in france and the situation for the different people and ten years ago looking at the minimum service was important for people when they go to work.

but now it is because of the reform we are passing. you have negotiations. even when a strike is normal but the day you have to blow past that equivalent. it is part of public expression and the guidance of your action. if you follow the you don't know because that could be the voice of the minority but that is not sufficient and that is a good organization but for

the right to demonstrate with those their decision definitely we will be committed into the current environment with a very aggressive democracy and a lot of businesses all over the place.

on top of that with one change when you look at the big ten version and all the situation can break the side effects so that is development. yes you will increase go from 37% from 55%. and then to increase our

investments. but we will focus on education that is why we are with the global partnership for education because it is very important to educate people especially in africa and women it is always a critical issue and also with agriculture but to me from and with the energy i have ever seen you that is an abortion for africa and others and for europe because

of the consequences of our ability we world work on terms of leadership it is an investment we invest in people. i will try to correct racial inequality. as for syria, that situation that i told them i am with you. but we have to be precise with what we do. and then to do more against faces. why? in france we will organize from our side.

but at the same time not from the machine that his people that left the country in jordan europe canada and that is why we were now to preserve the overflow because we want to have those chemical weapon. with those u.s. troops since the work is completed we will

increase with international cooperation so our willingness is working against the you listen to our press conference it does confirm to paint syria in the broadest picture and from the other point of view. and that is important because the first challenge in syria isn't war we can finish the war against icing. but to build and include the state to make sure all the minorities and all the in syria are invited to be and that is where the common leadership is very important and also syrian policies.

because we should never forget and i thank you mr. president will go to the next question in my first president, my only question officially with the assassination so what precautions do you take to protect jewish? the mr. president take you for coming here you stated that france no longer has the

policy it is focusing on cooperation with country however i'm curious what will france today has dealing with human rights with government corruption in africa especially with united states that used to be a major player is now withdrawing from the continent? >> enacted after mr. president. i am a student of philosophy here at george washington. many young people here have been inspired by your progress with the republic so what advice you have for those who could be frustrated or struggling against the two-party system?

>> we have i think there is too much. first with the situation between israel and palestine and that reflects the distribution in middle east with the international constitution from the beginning of the century so with your concern to me we have to recognize and protect and reaffirm every day they

are part of the french in front of the representatives a few weeks ago as we do every day by explaining that. it is the same with jewish people for every step of the french. but with french relation and religion it is not unique we need them to be a part of the french revolution so first we do education.

and we provide you train the citizens and children and teachers of new ideologies and second we have the security for jewish immigrants in france and third in order to explain and provide evidence for french democracy covered by what is made from all of these and on behalf of the engine and it can kill people

just to decide and it is not impactful of the french revolution but it will take time it is an incredible reality. as for the of this policy is with a different government i would like to address person is very will now with a complicated question with state government and for those people in this country without governance and democracy but

western leaders may tend to be very careful if you say i am ready to make visits with you in this why do you say that? you trying to teach me about my country? that's why they are much more enticed to do so and then we followed that is why i do the it is very important because to improve the level from the different african government and then to respect the position the very practical question is as soon as you

recognize that government business is just for you maybe it isn't fair but when making business with economic on a day-to-day basis how do you deal with that? let me refer to a speech that i did before let's work with several society that we created this alliance and to

work directly with the ngos and those you have to assess you should provide water so that is my answer. i look to the leaders of the african people but those who work with several society education, agriculture to be more efficient and to be consist but as for my advice if i may, for your generation

a lot of people from your generation in europe my recommendation would be listen to your teachers first to have a framework that you build your own judgment that is the main reason for you to be here communication is a big deal but never followed something that doesn't follow a strong organization. your generation is the one to decide for itself you were here to listen to your teacher

but even now you are here only question the frustration you can manage to understand why for good reason you lose something. if you don't manage to find the right explanation for your frustration don't abandon. go further. don't always just follow the rule because as crazy questionable something he. [laughter] [applause]

so as they have their frustration just by explanation by your political leaders a lot of people in my country so you should not say that. it is not possible i tell them i think it's fair. and some people say if you want to try should not. but at the end of the day i try to push the idea that we can gather people from the left and the right to have an aggressive view for the country.

. . . . and politics. we will try to do our best to provide some answers because at the end of the day you will be the one wh to decide so if it ms sense in your country to build new initiatives, if your

frustration addressed don't blame your teachers, just know there's something wrong in the system and let's work together in a system. it's your job. [applause] this young lady here wait for the microphone first and please state your name. good afternoon. i am in the school of business and my question is your course of plan and what you are aiming to do once you get rid of isis. >> the gentle man here in the

jacket wait for the microphone please. thank you for being here. my name is walter james i'm the senior in the school of international affairs. in 2016 the dalai lama made an official visit to france but the president didn't meet with him or any member of the french government. given that ever repression and s persecution of the kurds dalai lama who is excited within a given the positive relationship with you meet with the dalai lama if he were to return? >> here in the front. ina global student. what do you think the future of the european union looks like and what do you want it to look like? >> the first question is

similar. one more question for the gentle man here. thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us. my question is last years presidential election i am a junior in political science and economics and my question has to do with obviously it would be the first time they reached the second round of the election is that a sign of things to come that the system is changing? >> first question. i think i understand it's giving the last it's the first time either of the major parties on

the left or the right one. one. will it happen again or is it by chance? >> i addressed the issue very rapidly on this issue. indeed not just syria by the way that iraq and the whole region because the group attacks the country and they are a threat for the security. the international coalition is very strong because they gather

thousands of countries altogether. we have to finish this work but took a little bit further i want to express my view about why we are here to. there was a crisis for sure, and now it is rising a witc just the opposite of the original relationship and that is something we have to monitor very carefully.

you had a lot of complicated situations in the middle east sometimes because of our own interventions in the iraq and different places. the acceleration based on frustrations so in this region what we have to do is tricky and we have to organize altogether first finished the words of isis second, we have to work with our allies and the different governments of the region and not for the sovereignty of any

state. that's due to the way i do defend this approach to be sure it would be in the situation to represent everybody and respect all of them minorities because they think this is a unique condition thought to have them suddenly created from the ground because of the frustrations and because just one side was dominated. that's very important and now we failed to end its policy to get rid of the government didn' ande

fine for the people. none of it is the right solution. the right solution is to build likely did weeks ago without any casualties and through apolitical approach with people on the ground with the different governments to build the new order and this part of the broad approach i hope i convinced the president. as for the second question it was a great meeting and he's a great leader and i do respect him a lot.

if i need and it will create a crisis with china. for me ask the question off the situation. is it good for my country. i don't build the condition to have a useful meeting obviously is it good for my people for sure so my answer is if france could be useful to think of the

dalai lama it would be good for china and it's a great country so my answer will be much more with china. the chinese president wants to move. i hope so like that without any precondition just to provide a signal to the as for the question about the european

union by navy leader in the european union. that was one of the challenges of my campaign and one of the essential parts of my politics. why? because i do believe given the current challenges that we have com,the european union is the bt way. first of all we want peace. if i look at europe, if you look at europe and the history for centuries and centuries almost every decade is the first time

thanks to the european union because this is very unique between now and europe we have the broad organization. those are different parts of a. the european union is unique so we have to preserve that in the second when you look at the challenges regarding digital for the privatization to attract

talented people and get more inefficient when you look at the challenges regarding climate change and migration it broadens the. if it's my own digital policy it is much more useful and efficient to organize. that's why i'm a strong believer in the european union to building the sovereignty. i hope in the coming months we will reach an agreement. to have more integration and propose a series of new policies to have a more democratic and

sovereign europe. i made the proposal last september. i'm working hard with our partners to convince them now we have to design to be codifie ded propose to all of the people my view is that we will have a broad europe with less constraints. we will have a single market with the common policies and the existing search and level of integration for the digital and

with the same currency and integration in terms of the labor markets and corporate taxes and in terms of education. that's my addition vision, but e working hard now to try to overcome roadmaps. next year will be very important you of the european elections to decide for a new commission and i will do my best to provide a clear mandate. as i told the way of a conflict of interest. you always need differences

[inaudible] that's why for sure you will have a series of opposition but for me and for france. the energy and climate change, europe and so on they were totally divided. so it was regarding the challenges and what we propose so if i had to make it easy here i would say for sure you have

this coming from the conservatives and the extremes. that's probably in the orchestration of the life. we have less than 15 minutes left and we will go to the lady here in the aisle. >> thank you for coming here. i a am a data of science intervw student and my question has to do with the mass migration from the middle east and africa to europe. we have seen over the years it has continued an increase in

terrorist attacks to the plaintiffs at the ratpointthat e murder rate and we've seen an increase in sexual assault and tthe plaintiff that many are too scared to leave their house and the anti-cynicism to the point that in many cities they are warned not to wear religious garb for fear of being attacked and among a significant number given piece threats what will you and your government do to ensure that national security identity of france and europe have large on the colombian arts

of sciences what is your plan to achieve this and will you put up enough resources to realize that? on the international affairs my question is in regards to the reforms you've proven your capacity to effect change in francaffect change infrance becy however this strikes from the essence to be difficult to overcome considering the effects of strike and 1968 strike hell

do you plan to succeed an in thr goal of reforming and winning over the trust of the labor union. thank you. >> if you want to take up a fourth one absolutely this gentleman right here. [inaudible]

[applause] i am not at all to sure. that's why we are passing against sexual-harassment and i already addressed the question of your colleague i don't

believe this phenomena are directly linked to this current migration. why? [applause] we've had this issue in my country. you were referring and i do remember when he was elected for the second term. the campaign was a broad lack of security, exactly the same one and we had at th the attack morn six years ago now so it's not brand-new, and it's not to be correlated in migration honestly not to say that at the end of the day it would improve the

situation but what is at stake is to integrate people is key. you mentioned we have two great issues in this society. the first one is to build more security to the people. when you have the riots and violence it's because we failed with the ability to integrate. the children of those whose parents came for the job and

sometimes lost their jobs because of the crisis and we have failed to integrate them so that is one of the reasons we have to deal with through education and labor market reform and transformation in the country. on litigation we decided to review a number of children in the classrooms especially in poor neighborhoods. that is one of the best options and to show them it's good because it will allow you to find a place in your society. second you have to fight against discrimination because when you are educated you don't get a new job because you come from this neighborhood, because of your surname or religion. that is my job to fix that. it's a very important answer.

second, because of the lack of security and violence we passed the forces and we are now fighting the violence against women [inaudible] education from the fight against discrimination and strong involvement on security investment. this is the first challenge we have in our societies the direct consequences of the lack of integration and inequality.

the second big change we have is about religion and especially about islam. we are in a situation because this religion is suddenly brand-new for us. our societies are filled not with islam because it wasn't a part of this. but now you have to take into consideration that millions of people do believe and what i want to preserve as the right to believe it and i want people to decide on their own.

you have tensions within this religion and a it's not as they get better this religion religion it's not part of that. because i think on both sides of the atlantic national item these days on the free citizenship we want to educate our people and we want them to be in a

situation to choose. i am entitled to believe that you have to decide. my job is to be sure that you will be in a situation to have the freedom to decide. i think it is unjust to reject. [applause] the proper answer is to ask everybody in your country to respect the law of the country

and whatever the religion will be if on behalf of your religion you don't expect my role i am against you. you can believe in whatever you want to. that's the deep roots of our society and citizenship. finally, regarding the question, i think migration is increasingly a lot of difficulties we have and we have to face the challenge first by organizing ourselves to try to define the line gets very complicated. one of the most complicated issues. my fear is you can welcome people when they are a danger in their country. that is the duty no discussion about it.

i want my country to be in a situation to welcome people and try to get them accepted when they are at risk in their country you have to look at today 90% of the people today coming from africa are not coming to europe because of this kind of political risk but because of the economy and migration. that is a very different situation and i do endorse the fact that you cannot accept everybody because that is not a sustainable burden. we've already fixed the situation that you described in this situation i try to describe right now. so we have to organize between the different countries of

europe. because it is impossible for our societies to accept everybody. the second important point, and europe is a part of the solution by the way because that is the way of a common regulation and streamline the whole process and to protect people. but that is the very best answer if it is linked to the first question you raised. it's a unique way to avoid is to hold people to succeed in their country to provide electricity, energy, clean water, education, health care system. that is our collective duty and

that's the best way. this is a complicated issue and sometimes you can make big mistakes that this morning i just quoted the main fear is fear itself. for migration, it is exactly the same. if we don't address the original deep root cause of the migration, we will entertain the fear and create more division in our country and more rejections come oare more conflict and we l never fix the situation. we will never succeed and they will be preciselitwill be precia to succeed. as for the second question, i'm a strong believer because it is

a very unique language. i always say french people are often to speak one language. and africa people speak french, different languages and that's why i strongly believe the french language is laid language of inflation. a language of exchange. i think one of the weaknesses of

the language is probably the fact that is was perceived as an instrument to dominate people as a postcolonial approach. in that speech a few weeks ago we tried to present a new philosophy and i want this to be taken by the countries. today the core is the middle of africa, somewhere probably around something like that so we have to first encourage the country to develop this language and second we will invest in our

schools and networks and a new way to teach french and a new way to diffuse to learn, that is the core of this strategy and why i was excited by the leadership for education and why it's the corne core of the devet policy i do believe that the french language is a part of the overall strategy and i think it's very important not just for the french language because it can provide a policy for people. you can go and see this speech both in french and english and see all the details. thank you for your question and

i addressed a little bit of th this. the question is do you think we will overcome, just to pay my tribute i was with them a few minutes ago. there is no doubt because we have to do so. the situation is very different from the situation imagined 22 years ago. 22 years ago today it is different. the majority are able to move forward and it's a part of the election so we shouldn't consider that because of 22 years ago it's impossible to deliver a new one now.

what i want to do and the government wants to do is to demonize it and have a more thorough system because when you look at the situation with different sectors to have a much more efficient system because that is a precondition to the system to make it as a role model for the rational reform is strong, the situation is more than just a was 20 years ago. we've risen to the reform and initiated and we both deliver, so we will overcome for sure. don't have any doubt about it. it is good for the country. if i stop putting the country on this issue how do you want me to fix this important issue you are calling the race on security and

integration, it's impossible. if you want to do so, you have to be strong in this kind of situation you have to be clear and respectable, but for me it is good for people working as for the last question between the u.s. and china, i am a strong defender of the organization. it is never good to say i want to get rid of the rules i decided for myself and the u.s., france and a lot of other countries are the ones who created precisely the trade rules for everybody. i do believe that the trade war

will not make sense. we have nevertheless an issue not with china and this issue was recognized by china itself a few semesters ago in a statement made he recognized himself and committed himself to deal with the capacities so for me the best way to fix this situation is to avoid any escalation. second, to be attached precisely to this free and fair trade and fear to organize a fair treatment with china.

anything i can do to facilitate i will do. i think that he wants a negotiation with china and we will push this solution in order to avoid any escalation and france will definitely defend because they think it is good for no one. one last remark if i may i just want to convey a message to you about the climate change because they speak about it and internationaininternational affd security in the salon and certainly we address gender equal to the issues but it's much broader and it's part of the revolution and your

generation will defend this and we will have to change that and ended apartheid they will have to deal with but i want to convey a message on the climate change. we had a lot of debate between france and the united states regarding climate change. it's not breaking news, but whatever the decision could be we would have to deal with this climate change and all these issues and it will be at the core of the organization of your generation. that is impossible to say i defend the economy and future of the country. i don't want to listen to your message about climate change should. it's good for people in jobs and

people at george washington university or whatever but i think the effects are the first victims of climate change debate [inaudible] because of this big transformation of the climate. so people living in poor neighborhoods because of air pollution they experience. if you're generation wants to give the choice to the next generation, you will have to fix

the climate change, the air pollution, the biodiversity. it will be your duty. my generation will do its best in order for your generation to have a choice to choose but it will be the duty of your generation to do the job. and bear in mind if you want the first to avoid the new migration, the new frustration, you have to build the environment and be a fair globalization. you will have to fix that. there is no other option because there is no other planet. there is no other humanity. we will do our best and one of my objectives is not to fix

everything that to give you the opportunity to decide for your generation. [applause] thank you. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you. [applause] you are still overcome for sure. [applause]

snekt attorney general jeff sessions on the budget request. a conversation with presidential economic adviser and a house hearing on how to prevent circulating opioid through mail and later, macron talking to students at george washington you aren't. testifying before a house appropriations subcommittee on the justice's department 2019 budget request. the hearing is two hours and 15 minutes.