France’s new president vows to fortify EU, revamp politics

PARIS — In ceremonies marked by youthful optimism and old-world Napoleonic pomp, Emmanuel Macron swept into office Sunday as France’s new president pledging to fortify the European Union, redesign French politics and glue together his divided nation.

Macron’s presidency began with a visit to troops wounded in overseas combat — a reminder of France’s large global military presence and role in fighting extremists from Syria to Africa.

He’s expected to name a prime minister imminently and to show his commitment to reviving European unity. Macron takes his first presidential trip Monday to Berlin to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In an inaugural speech, Macron vowed to lift France out of its sense of decline and seize again its place in the world.

“The time has come for France to rise up to the occasion. The division and fractures across our society must be overcome because the world expects us to be strong, solid, clairvoyant.”

He promised to take France’s responsibilities to tackle today’s crises — “the migration crisis, the climate challenge, authoritarian abuse, the excesses of capitalism in the world and of course terrorism. Nothing now strikes one and spares the other. We are all interdependent. We are all neighbors.”

The 39-year-old Macron is the youngest president in the country’s history and the eighth president of France’s Fifth Republic, which was created in 1958. A former economy minister with pro-business, pro-European views, Macron is the first French president from outside the country’s two mainstream parties.