MACRON INAUGURATED:
France’s outgoing President Francois Hollande (right) being escorted by his successor Emmanuel Macron as he leaves the Elysee presidential Palace at the end of their handover ceremony and prior to Macron’s formal inauguration as French President in Paris. Macron, a 39-year-old centrist, took the reins of power from Hollande a week after he won a resounding victory over far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a tumultuous election. He was yesterday proclaimed president by Laurent Fabius, president of the Constitutional Council. In his first speech the country’s youngest ever post-war president said the country had chosen ‘hope’ and promised to relaunch the flagging European Union.
PARIS: Emmanuel Macron becomes France’s youngest ever president yesterday, taking over from Socialist Francois Hollande in a solemn ceremony.
Macron, a 39-year- old centrist, arrived at the Elysee Palace in central Paris in a motorcade and walked down the red carpet under light rain to be greeted by Hollande for his inauguration.
The new president’s wife Brigitte, a 64-year- old who was his high school drama teacher, arrived separately for the ceremony wearing a light blue Louis Vuitton outfit.
A week after his victory over far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a tumultuous election, Macron will have a private meeting with Hollande at which he will be given the codes to launch France’s nuclear weapons.
He will then attend a ceremony in front of hundreds of politicians and invited guests at which the official election results will be read out.
At the end of the formalities, a 21gun salute is to ring out from the Invalides military hospital on the other side of the River Seine.
Macron will then be driven to the Arc de Triomphe to lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
The new president faces a host of daunting challenges including tackling stubbornly high unemployment, fighting Islamistinspired violence and uniting a deeply divided country.
Socialist Hollande’s five years in power were plagued by a sluggish economy and bloody terror attacks that killed more than 230 people and he leaves office after a single term.
The 64-year- old launched Macron’s political career, plucking him from the world of investment banking to be an advisor and then his economy minister.
“I am not handing over power to a political opponent, it’s far simpler,”
I am not handing over power to a political opponent, it’s far simpler. Francois Hollande, Former French President
Hollande said on Thursday.
Security was tight with around 1,500 police officers deployed near the presidential palace and the nearby Champs Elysees avenue and surrounding roads were blocked off.
After a formal lunch, Macron will visit Paris’s town hall, a traditional stop for any new French president in his ‘host’ city.
Macron’s first week will be busy. On Monday, he is expected to reveal the closely- guarded name of his prime minister, before flying to Berlin to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
It is virtually a rite of passage for French leaders to make their first European trip to meet the leader of the other half of the so- called ‘motor’ of the EU.
Pro-EU Macron wants to push for closer cooperation to help the bloc overcome the imminent departure of Britain, another of its most powerful members.
He intends to press for the creation of a parliament and budget for the eurozone.
Merkel welcomed Macron’s decisive 32-point victory over Le Pen, saying he carried ‘the hopes of millions of French people and also many in Germany and across Europe’.
In June, Macron faces what the French media are calling a ‘ third round of the presidential election’ when the country elects a new parliament in a two-round vote.
The new president needs an outright majority to be able to enact his ambitious reform agenda.
The year- old political movement ‘ Republique en Marche’ ( Republic on the Move, REM) that he formed to launch his presidential bid intends to field candidates in virtually every constituency in the country. — AFP Hollande took power on a leftist platform — including a top tax rate of 75 per cent — but later shifted towards business-friendly policies, notably trying to tackle France’s famously rigid labour laws.His government suffered months of violent protests in 2016 over reforms designed to make it easier to hire people but also easier to fire them, before finally managing to push through a watered- down version last summer. Hollande’s approval ratings sank to catastrophic lows, dragged down by disappointment over his management of the economy. Despite promises to create jobs, unemployment remains near 10 per cent. Hollande launched a military operation in January 2013 to halt the advance of Islamists who had taken over swathes of northern Mali, a former French colony. The following December, a second operation was launched in the Central African Republic — another former colonial possession — in a bid to restore stability to a country gripped by religious violence. Jihadists remain active in Mali and a vast portion of the country remains out of government control, while violence also remains rife in CAR. Hollande also sought to intervene in Syria in 2013, but backed out of air strikes when it became clear then US president Barack Obama did not intend to follow suit. France began air strikes in Syria only in September 2015 as part of an international coalition targeting IS. French raids against IS in Iraq had begun in September 2014. After the Paris attacks, Hollande sought to modify the constitution to allow convicted terrorists to be stripped of their French nationality if they were dual nationals. The issue sparked fierce debate over the ethics of such a move, with Justice Minister Christiane Taubira quitting in protest. Hollande finally scrapped the idea. When announcing late last year that he would not seek re- election, Hollande flagged up the row as the one major regret of his presidency.