Macron takes charge as France’s youngest Prez

Paris, May 14: Emmanuel Macron was inaugurated as France’s youngest ever president on Sunday, saying the country had chosen “hope” and promising to relaunch the flagging EU.

Macron, a 39-year-old centrist, took the reins of power from Francois Hollande a week after he won a resounding victory over far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

After a warm welcome from Hollande at the Elysee Palace, the two men held a closed-doors meeting during which Macron was handed the codes to launch France’s nuclear arsenal.

The former investment banker who had never contested an election was then proclaimed president by Laurent Fabius, president of the Constituti-onal Council.

In his first speech, Macron said the French people had chosen “hope” and shown a willingness to change in the election.

He promised that the EU, hit by the imminent departure of Britain, would be “rejuvenated and relaunched” during his time in office.

“The world and Europe need France now more than ever and they need a strong France with a sense of its own destiny.” To underline his European ambitions, Macron will visit German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Monday in his first foreign trip. At the end of the formalities, a 21-gun salute rang out from the Invalides military hospital on the other side of the River Seine. — AFP