Train smashes through house
EMMANUEL MACRON was inaugurated as France’s new president at the Elysee palace in Paris on Sunday and immediately launched into his mission to fight terrorism and shake up French politics and the EU.
At 39, Macron is the youngest president in the country’s history and the 8th president of France’s Fifth Republic, which was created in 1958.
A former economy minister with pro-business, pro-European views, he is the first French president who does not originate from one of the country’s two mainstream parties.
Mr Macron takes charge of a nation that, when Britain leaves the European Union in 2019, will become the EU’s only member with nuclear weapons and a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
He met for an hour with his predecessor, Francois Hollande, in the president’s office, taking a last few minutes to discuss the most sensitive issues facing France, including the country’s nuclear codes.
In a visibly moving moment for both, Mr Macron accompanied Mr Hollande to his car, shaking hands and applauding him along with the employees of the French presidency who gathered in the palace’s courtyard.
The two men had known each other well. Mr Macron was Mr Hollande’s former adviser, then his economy minister from 2014 to 2016, when Mr Macron quit the Socialist government to launch his own independent presidential bid.
In his inauguration speech, Mr Macron said he will do everything that is necessary to fight terrorism and authoritarianism and to resolve the world’s migration crisis.
He also listed “the excesses of capitalism in the world” and climate change among his future challenges.
“We will take all our responsibilities to provide, every time it’s needed, a relevant response to big contemporary crises,” He said.
Mr Macron announced his determination to push ahead with reforms to free up France’s economy and pledged to press for a “more efficient, more democratic” EU.
Three people were killed and 10 injured when an Intercity train derailed and crashed into a house, exiting on the other side.
Two men – the 44-year-old driver and a passenger aged 50 – died at the scene and a third man, a passenger aged 55, died later. Two other passengers are in a serious condition following the crash into the three-storey house in the village of Adendro, 25 miles west of the city of Thessaloniki, on Saturday. The train had been travelling on the Athens-Thessaloniki route.