Emmanuel Macron made “the oath” to “bequeath a more livable planet” and “a stronger France” during his investiture on Saturday at the Elysée for a second five-year term during which he intends to “act tirelessly”, in ” difficult times”.
In front of more than 450 guests gathered in the village hall, including his predecessors Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, the Head of State outlined the spirit in which he intended to preside until 2027. He will be “a new president” for “a new mandate”, he said during a speech lasting about ten minutes.
Returning to his victory with 58.5% of the vote against Marine Le Pen, he considered that the French had made “the choice of a clear project” in the face of “the sirens of ideologies whose shores we thought we had left” in 20th century and “easy demagoguery”. “The time which opens will be that of a resolute action for France and for Europe”, he promised. “Act first to avoid any escalation following the Russian aggression in Ukraine, to help democracy and courage to prevail, to build a new European peace and a new autonomy on our continent”.
After having formalized his investiture – by getting 90,000 votes wrong in the announcement of the final results – the President of the Constitutional Council Laurent Fabius insisted on “the major challenges” to be met, the “war”, “global warming” and challenges to “democracy”.
After the announcement of the results, he was presented with the large necklace of the Legion of Honor, placed on a red velvet cushion – of which he has already been Grand Master since 2017. Among the guests were Prime Minister Jean Castex, all smiles, his predecessors Edouard Philippe, Manuel Valls, Jean-Pierre Raffarin or Alain Juppé, ministers, many elected officials, heads of constituted bodies, academies, religions.
The Head of State also greeted the parents of Samuel Paty, the teacher beheaded in October 2020, the widow of the first doctor who died from Covid or the mayor of Trèbes, the city where three people were killed in March 2018, including the Gendarmerie Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame.
At the end of the ceremony, Emmanuel Macron went out into the gardens of the Elysée to review the troops to the sound of the Marseillaise but also of the piece “Terre et mer” by Bagad de Lann-Bihoué, already played during the five-year term to pay tribute to soldiers killed in operation in the Sahel. As tradition dictates, 21 cannon shots were fired from the Invalides.
However, this investiture did not mark the start of the new five-year term: it will officially be necessary to wait until the end of the first, on the evening of Friday May 13 at midnight.
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