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| Macron (R) in a warm handshake with Hollande during the inauguration |
Emmanuel Macron becomes France’s youngest ever president on Sunday, taking over from Socialist Francois Hollande in a solemn ceremony.
Mr Macron, a 39-year-old centrist, arrived at the Elysee Palace in central Paris in a motorcade and walked down the red carpet under light rain to be greeted by Hollande for his inauguration.
The new president’s wife Brigitte, a 64-year-old who was his high school drama teacher, arrived separately for the ceremony wearing a light blue Louis Vuitton outfit.
A week after his victory over far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a tumultuous election, Macron will have a private meeting with Hollande at which he will be given the codes to launch France’s nuclear weapons.
He will then attend a ceremony in front of hundreds of politicians and invited guests at which the official election results will be read out.
At the end of the formalities, a 21-gun salute is to ring out from the Invalides military hospital on the other side of the River Seine.
Macron will then be driven to the Arc de Triomphe to lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
AFP
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