Macron promises a “more independent” France after being reinstated as president

The centrist president Emmanuel Macron promised this Saturday to work "without a rest" in pursuit of a France "more independent" Y "stronger"assuming a new five-year mandate after the last presidential election.

"To act tirelessly with one goal: to be a more independent nation, to live better and to build our French and European responses to the challenges of our century"Macron said during a sober ceremony at the Elysee Palace.

His investiture comes just over a month before the legislative elections, in which he will seek to renew his parliamentary majority, although a large part of the French, according to polls published after his re-election, want him to lose it.

Unlike in 2017, his center-right alliance will face a front from the left, which seeks to prevent Macron from carrying out controversial reforms such as raising the retirement age from 62 to 65, as well as a strong far right.

"The presidential election has not solved anything. Macron is a president without a mandate"estimated on Saturday the leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of this alliance, having obtained almost 22% of the vote in the first round of those elections.

On April 24, Macron became the first president to achieve re-election in two decades after again defeating the far-right Marine Le Pen in the ballot with 58.55% of the vote, some 7.5 points less advantage than in 2017.

After the president of the Constitutional Council, Laurent Fabius, orally proclaimed the results, including error in figures, and recalled the "crisis accumulation" During his first term, Macron promised to be a "new president".

Elected in 2017 with a reformist and pro-European impulse, the liberal politician faced a series of social protests against his policy towards the popular classes, a global pandemic and the effects of the war in Ukraine.

– "unite and pacify"
"This new people, different from five years ago, entrusted a new president with a new mandate"assured Macron, 44, who promised "unite and pacify" France, as well as "bequeath a more habitable planet" and a country "stronger".

The investiture ceremony was held in the Elysée ballroom before some 450 guests, including his predecessors, the socialist Francois Hollande and the conservative Nicolas Sarkozy.

The luxurious room also welcomed former prime ministers, such as Manuel Valls -a former socialist who joined the ranks of Macron-, as well as deputies, trade unionists, religious figures, athletes, young people, health workers, etc.

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"It is an extension of an almost monarchical ritual, basically it is a kind of coronation of the republican monarch"historian Jean Garrigues told AFP.

Standing in the Elysée gardens, Macron listened to the salute of 21 guns fired from the nearby Esplanade des Invalides, before hearing "The marsellesa"the national anthem, and review the troops.

His new term will officially begin on May 14.

To mark the occasion, Macron is seeking to appoint a new prime minister, an election that is expected to be complex as shown by the fact that the current government will continue until at least the day before.

– In bell
The presidential election revealed a three-block political landscape: a center with Macron and his center-right allies, an extreme right divided into two parties, and a left, led by its radical wing.

In order to carry out his program, the legislative elections of June 12 and 19 are announced keys. The opposition, which considers them a "third round"is already mobilized to prevent it.

The New Popular Ecological and Social Union, which brings together the radical left, environmentalists, communists and socialists, launched its campaign this Saturday to achieve a majority of deputies and impose Mélenchon, 70, as prime minister.

But this united front has generated tension within the once-ruling Socialist Party, some of whose members are considering running for office against alliance candidates.

"These will be ‘macronista’ candidates because they will only serve Macron"warned Mélenchon, the leader of La France Insumisa (LFI).

In order to appeal to socialists disillusioned with this union and rebalance their centre-right alliance, the president’s La República en Marcha (LREM) announced a name change to "Renaissance".

To the right of Macron, the Los Republicanos party, which experienced a debacle in the presidential election with less than 5% of the vote, and ¡Reconquista! of the far-right Éric Zemmour also entered the campaign this Saturday, waiting for Le Pen to do so next week.

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