France Swears in Its Youngest Leader Since Napoleon

Emmanuel Macron inaugurated, says all nations 'are neighbors'
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 14, 2017 5:32 AM CDT
France Swears in Its Youngest Leader Since Napoleon
Outgoing French President Francois Hollande, left, greets President-elect Emmanuel Macron before the handover ceremony, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Sunday, May 14, 2017.    (Christophe Ena)

France has inaugurated new president, Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old independent centrist who was elected on May 7, reports the AP. Arriving Sunday at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris, Macron slowly marched alone, under a light rain, in the Elysee courtyard. He shook hands with his predecessor, Francois Hollande, at the front porch and the two men briefly posed for photographers. Macron is the youngest president in the country's history and the 8th president of France's Fifth Republic, created in 1958. His Republic on the Move movement hopes to reinvigorate French politics and win a majority of lawmakers in the June parliamentary election. The centrist, speaking Sunday in his inauguration speech, says "we will take all our responsibilities to provide, every time it's needed, a relevant response to big contemporary crises."

He listed "the excesses of capitalism in the world" and climate change among his future challenges. Macron says all countries in the world are "interdependent ... we are all neighbors." He announced his determination to push ahead with reforms to free up France's economy and pledged to press for a "more efficient, more democratic" European Union. He is the first French president who doesn't originate from one of the country's two mainstream parties. His Republic on the Move movement hopes to reinvigorate French politics and win a majority of lawmakers in the June parliamentary election. 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. (More Emmanuel Macron stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X