French hopeful as Macron replaces Hollande as head of state

Record ID: 876077

  • Title: French hopeful as Macron replaces Hollande as head of state
  • Date: 14th May 2017
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (MAY 14, 2017) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (French) 54 YEAR-OLD ENTREPRENEUR, BERNARD PEREZ, SAYING: "I expect a ceremony which will show a calm Republic between two people who appreciate each other - it wasn't the case in the last handing over of power. It will happen in a serene way and I think it's good for the image of France." (SOUNDBITE) (French) 27 YEAR-OLD PARISIAN, CHARLES BOUYER, SAYING: "He tries to fight the idea that he (Emmanuel Macron) is the continuity of Hollande's five-year term, will he be able to do that, I think he has several challenges but he should be able to overcome all of this." (SOUNDBITE) (French) PARISIAN, DOMINIQUE DUCHEMIN, SAYING: "As with (Jacques) Chirac, he (Emmanuel Macron) knows very well that he was elected with welcoming votes and less welcoming votes, but I think that at every start of presidential mandates we need to give him the chance. He was nevertheless elected with 66 percent (of the votes)." VARIOUS OF BARRIERS BEING SET UP ON CHAMPS-ELYSEES, WHERE MACRON WILL DRIVE PAST AS PART OF HANDOVER CEREMONIES ARC DE TRIOMPHE MONUMENT, WHICH MACRON WILL VISIT AS PART OF CEREMONIES
  • Embargoed: 28th May 2017 08:18
  • Keywords: handover inauguration Elysee president Macron Hollande
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • City: PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
  • Reuters ID: LVA0036GT7M13
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Central Paris came to a standstill on Sunday (May 14) for the inauguration of Emmanuel Macron as president of France for a five-year term.
    Macron overcame the odds to win an election, saying he can unite a divided nation.
    In a first for the world's fifth largest economy that is a founding member of the European Union, the 39 year-old centrist newcomer was unknown to the wider public three years ago and does not belong to any traditional political grouping.
    The former investment banker will become the youngest postwar French leader and the first to be born after 1958 when President Charles de Gaulle put in place the country's fifth Republic.
    A 21-gun salute at the Esplanade des Invalides behind the Eiffel Tower after he takes power will mark at least a pause in the anti-globalisation trend that brought Donald Trump the U.S. presidency and led British voters to pick a future outside the European Union.
    But the outcome of a fraught, tight, and bitterly contested election campaign was a disappointment for almost half of France's 47 million voters.
    Many of them feel dispossessed as manufacturing jobs move abroad and as immigration and a fast-changing world blur their sense of a French identity.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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