The traditional ceremony for the handover of power by the President of the French Republic has ended: François Hollande left the Elysée after 5 years, which honestly will not go down in history for the results obtained, especially on the front of the economic crisis and the fight against Islamic terrorism , and Emmanuel Macron, the youngest head of state in French democratic history, has officially taken office.
“The Constitutional Council proclaimed you elected President of the Republic, 8/o elected by universal suffrage in the Fifth Republic. At this precise moment you take office ": with these words the president of the Constitutional Council, Laurent Fabius, awarded president Emmanuel Macron.
“The world and Europe need France more than ever, a strong France – said Macron in his inauguration speech, who had arrived at the Elysée by car under a light rain, just like during the handover of power by Sarkozy- Hollande from 5 years ago -. On May 7, the French chose the spirit of conquest. We need a France that knows how to invent the future. My first requirement will be to restore to the French self-confidence which has been undermined for too long. It will be slow, demanding but indispensable work”.
Macron has announced that he will only announce the prime minister's name tomorrow. In recent days it had been said that Macron would announce his prime minister already on Sunday, but today the secretary of En Marche!, Richard Ferrand, present at the Elysée among the guests, announced that the prime minister's name will be made known tomorrow. In pole position there are always the usual names: François Bayrou has firmly returned to the running after the – resolved – case of the lists of candidates for the legislative elections, but a “right-wing” nomination such as Laurent Philippe, right-hand man of the Gaullist leader Juppè cannot be ruled out , or Richard Borloo, a centrist who has always been close to Sarkozy, to seal what should be a government of broad understandings albeit with strong socialist overtones, as Macron himself hinted immediately after the election.
On the other hand, the first official appointment has arrived, that of the secretary general of the Elysée, who will be Macron's right-hand man for the next five years. The newly installed president has chosen 43-year-old Alexis Kohler, former head of Macron's cabinet when he was economy minister in the Valls government. Kohler has a typical route of the French "grandes ecoles" (Essec and Ena). He was director at the Treasury then at the International Monetary Fund, then at the Agency for State Investments, and recently he had landed as finance director in the Italian group MSC Cruises.
