François Hollande enters the Elysée at 10.02, welcomed by a cordial but visibly (and understandably) embittered Nicolas Sarkozy. Five minutes earlier, as required by protocol, the new president of the French Republic (in office since midnight yesterday) was preceded by his companion, the new first lady Valérie Trierweiler, who was in turn welcomed by the now former landlady Carla Bruni.
Between the two key moments of the changing of the guard (“la passation de pouvoirs”) there is also time for the arrival of François Fillon, Sarkozy's prime minister, who will be replaced in the afternoon, when Hollande will formalize his government team. In all likelihood, it will be the 62-year-old mayor of Nantes and very loyal to President Jean-Marc Ayrault who will take his place in Martignon.
The courtesy chat between the outgoing and incoming presidents lasts just under 40 minutes, during which the prestigious Elysium building was finally cleared out to make room for the new tenant to move in. Sarkozy, as established by practice, will begin his new life as a normal citizen (as he himself announced, retiring from political activity), in an office of 323 square meters (worth 15 euros a month) made available to him by the State in the heart of the XNUMXth arrondissement, not far from his now former home and his law firm.
Hollande, for his part, having greeted his predecessor, he pronounced his first words as President of the Republic on live TV, with a message of encouragement to France: “On this day in which I am invested with the highest office of the state – Hollande began – I address a message of confidence to the French: we are a great country, a great people, called several times in its history to face difficult challenges. And every time we have overcome them, remaining ourselves, always in the raising and opening, never in the lowering and closing".
"There is no fatality – continued Hollande -: we must straighten out the future of France in justice, open a new path for Europeand contribute to world peace. We have the duty and the energy to do it”. “The first condition for success is the unity of the nation: differences must not be divisions, the country needs reconciliation, and this task falls to me", concluded Monsieur le Président , also recalling "the intangible principle of the secular state".
After the ceremony, the leader of the left is preparing to face his first day as president: first the homage to the Unknown Soldier of the Arc de Triomphe, then to his inspirers, the XNUMXth century politician Jules Ferry in the Tuileries and the scientist prize Nobel Marie Curie at the Institute of the same name. Hollande will then appoint his government team after that at 15 pm the meeting at the Hotel de Ville with the mayor of Paris (and possible Minister of Justice) Bertrand Delanoe, and finally, at 16, the flight to Berlin for the eagerly awaited dinner with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
