Five more years for Emmanuel Macron as head of state. In front of more than 450 guests gathered in the hall of the Elysée Palace to attend his investiture ceremony, Saturday May 7, the President of the Republic sketched the spirit in which he intended to govern until 2027. He will be “a new president” pour “a new mandate”he said during a ten-minute speech.
“At a time when the French are once again entrusting me with the highest responsibility, I am aware of the gravity of the times. From the return of war in Europe to the pandemic, via the ecological emergency (…), rarely has our world and our country been confronted with such a combination of challenges”, did he declare. Returning to his victory with 58.5% of the vote against Marine Le Pen, he felt that the French had done “the choice of a clear project” face “to the sirens of ideologies whose shores we thought we had left” au XXe century and to “easy demagoguery”.
The hesitation of Laurent Fabius
“The time which opens will be that of a resolute action for France and for Europe”he promised. “Act first to avoid any escalation [à la] suite [de] Russian aggression in Ukraine, to help democracy and courage to prevail, to build a new European peace and a new autonomy on our continent. » He also pledged to “acting for a full employment society”against the “inequalities, by recasting [l’]school and [le système de] health “versus “the insecurities of everyday life, of the terrorism that still lurks”.
After formalizing his investiture, the President of the Constitutional Council, Laurent Fabius, called on him to raise “great challenges” of this new five-year term, which follows five years “hit by an accumulation of crises and upheavals”such as those of the Covid-19 pandemic, global warming or the war in Ukraine. “In these troubled times, let us be servants of the law and slaves of duty”, he added, quoting Victor Hugo. A few minutes earlier, at the start of his speech, Mr. Fabius paused for a few seconds, hesitating over the numbers: « You received 18,678,639 votes, that is to say the absolute majority of the votes cast. » In reality, Mr. Macron gathered 18,768,639 votes.
Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande among the guests
Among the guests were the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, all smiles, his predecessors Edouard Philippe, Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Manuel Valls, ministers, many elected officials, heads of constituted bodies, academies, religions… As well as the elders Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande.
They rubbed shoulders, under the golds of the palace, with the president’s family, including his wife, Brigitte, caregivers, the mayors of certain municipalities where the great debate took place, in 2019, during the crisis of “yellow vests”, association officials, athletes, such as the Olympic boxing champion Brahim Asloum, students from a class of 6e of the Oise labeled Olympic Games 2024. “I’m glad you’re here for this Republican moment. Now it is you who will prepare the sequel »Mr. Macron told them.
He also greeted the parents of Samuel Paty, the teacher beheaded in October 2020, the widow of the first doctor who died of Covid-19 and the mayor of Trèbes, a town where three people were killed in March 2018, including Lieutenant-Colonel Gendarmerie Arnaud Beltrame. At the end of the ceremony, Mr. Macron went out into the Elysée park to review the troops, to the sound of The Marseillaise and piece Earth and sea 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, twenty-one cannon shots were fired from the Hôtel des Invalides. This investiture did not mark the start of the new five-year term: it will officially be necessary to wait for the end of the first, which will end on Friday, May 13.