Will heal French divide, vows Macron after oath
France’s youngest post-war Prez pledges to restore nation’s standing on world stage
Emmanuel Macron took office as the President of France on Sunday, vowing to restore the country’s status in Europe and the world and heal divisions in society — a nod to the bitter campaign the pro-EU centrist fought to defeat a far-right leader.
The 39-year-old former investment banker, unknown to the wider public three years ago and whose May 7 election marked a meteoric rise to power, was inaugurated as leader of the world’s fifthlargest economy in a solemn Elysee Palace ceremony.
In his first words after taking office, he pledged to restore France’s standing on the world stage, strengthen national selfconfidence and heal divisions that the bitterlyfought campaign had opened up.
Mr Macron beat the National Front’s Marine Le Pen in a May 7 run-off vote, but the long campaign exposed deep divisions over France’s role in Europe, immigration, and policies to revive a sluggish economy bedeviled by high unemployment.
“The division and fractures in our society must be overcome. I know that the French expect much from me. Nothing will make me stop defending the higher interests of France and from working to reconcile the French,” Mr Macron declared.
Although his victory over Ms Le Pen was comfortable, almost half of France’s 47 million voters
The division and fractures in our society must be overcome. I know the French expect much from me. Nothing will make me stop defending the higher interests of France.
— Emmanuel Macron, French President
chose candidates with views opposed to Mr Macron’s in the first round of the election.
Many say they feel dispossessed by globalisation as manufacturing jobs move abroad, and as immigration and a fast-changing world blur their sense of a French identity.
A convinced European integrationist, unlike Ms Le Pen and other candidates, Mr Macron went on to say, “The world and Europe need France more than ever, and a strong France, which speaks out loudly for freedom and solidarity.”
Seeking closer ties with EU anchor nation Germany, Mr Macron will meet Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Monday. He will ram home the message that the EU is resilient despite Britain’s vote to leave and a spate of financial and migration crises that have boosted the far right.
Emmanuel Macron became France’s youngest ever president on Sunday, promising at his inauguration to restore the country’s lost confidence and pledging to relaunch the flagging European Union.
Mr Macron, a 39-yearold centrist, took the reins of power from Socialist Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace, a week after his resounding victory over far-right leader Ms Marine Le Pen in an election that was watched worldwide. After a private meeting with his former mentor Hollande and his first speech as President, Mr Macron headed up the rainy Champs Elysees in an army vehicle, waving to small crowds of wellwishers who gathered along the famed avenue.
Macron said his first priority would be “to give back to the French people the confidence that for too long has been flagging”, while the second would be making France a beacon for democracy and freedom worldwide.
France’s place was in the European Union “which protects us and enables us to project our values in the world,” but he said the 28-member bloc needed to be “reformed and relaunched.”
Macron suggested that he would press on with his ambitious but controversial agenda to reform France’s rigid labour market and modernise the social security system despite the fierce resistance he is likely to meet.
“I will not reverse course on any of the commitments taken in front of the French people,” he said, adding, “France is strong only if she is prosperous.”
Some analysts and opponents have questioned the strength of Mr Macron’s mandate after he won just 24.01 per cent in the first round of the presidential election on April 23 before his landslide victory over Le Pen in the second.
His opponents on the far-right and far-left, opposed to the EU and major economic reforms, won around 50 per cent of the first-round vote.
The former investment banker was proclaimed president by Laurent Fabius, president of the Constitutional Council, at the 18th-century presidential palace in central Paris where Mr Macron and his wife Brigitte will now live.