Young gun Macron is inaugurated
EMMANUEL Macron became France’s youngest ever president yesterday, promising at his inauguration to restore the country’s lost confidence and pledging to relaunch the flagging European Union.
Macron, a 39-year-old centrist, took the reins of power from Socialist Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace a week after his resounding victory over far-right leader 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, Macron headed up the rainy Champs Elysees in an army vehicle, waving to small crowds of well-wishers.
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 also suggested 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 was likely to meet.
“I will not reverse course on any of the commitments taken in front of the French people,” he said, adding that “France is strong only if she is prosperous”. Some analysts and opponents have questioned the strength of Macron’s mandate after he won just 24.01% in the first round of the presidential election on April 23 before 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% 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 Macron and his wife Brigitte will now live. Brigitte, a 64-year-old who was his high school drama teacher, attended the ceremony wearing a light blue Louis Vuitton outfit.
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.
The new president faces a host of daunting challenges including tackling stubbornly high unemployment, fighting Islamist-inspired violence and healing divisions exposed by an often vicious election campaign.
Hollande’s five years in power were plagued by a sluggish economy and bloody terror attacks that killed more than 230 people.