In a country where presidents are rarely re-elected, Macron won 58.5 percent of the vote in the second round against Marine Le Pen of the far right, despite strong opposition to his pro-business policies and a proposal to raise the retirement age. Officially inaugurated, the president “swore an oath” in front of more than 450 guests to “bequeath a more livable planet and a more lively and stronger France”.
The ceremony and the inauguration speech of Emmanuel Macron were scheduled for this Saturday morning, May 7, 2022. The act of launching the second term of the head of state has been set on a symbolic date: 5 years ago to the day, Emmanuel Macron won the presidential election. And it will have been short, barely more than an hour in the ballroom of the Elysee Palace.
The inauguration began with an address by Laurent Fabius, President of the Constitutional Council, who was in charge of proclaiming Emmanuel Macron’s victory. The former Socialist Prime Minister called for president to take up “the great challenges” of this new quinquennium after five years “hit by an accumulation of crises and upheavals,” from Covid to the war in Ukraine. “In these troubled times, let us be the servants of right and the slaves of duty,” he added, quoting Victor Hugo.
450 people were invited to the inauguration of Emmanuel Macron, including former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande and many other political figures including Jean Castex, Gerard Larcher, Richard Ferrand, or Manuel Valls. A large part of the family of Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron also. The head of state greeted them one by one before a ceremony in the gardens of the Elysee in the presence of military.
On his Twitter account, Manuel Valls expressed his joy and emotion to have been invited to the inauguration ceremony of Emmanuel Macron: “Proud, happy and moved to be at the inauguration ceremony of the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron!”
Emmanuel Macron’s inauguration speech will have lasted about fifteen minutes. The President of the Republic announced the legacy he wishes to leave at the end of his second five-year term: “Every day of the mandate that opens, I will have only one compass: to serve our country, our fellow citizens, our children.” In addition, Emmanuel Macron made a promise in the form of an oath: “to leave a more livable planet and a more lively France.”
Emmanuel Macron did not give a precise clue of the content of his five-year term nor recalled the content of his reforms, but tried to set the tone of the next 5 years. To convey the message of the expected renewal, he spoke of “a new people” who elected “a new president” for a “new mandate” in the presidential election. He also made “the oath” to “leave a more liveable planet” and “a stronger France”.
Anxious to mark a break with the previous five years, the head of state devoted his first speech of his second five-year term to outlining the “course” of his presidency, to specify the “new method” that he intends to adopt, “the foundation of the democratic renaissance”. And as if to ward off the curse of re-election, which has often rhymed in political history with inaction, the founder of En marche! recalled his desire to resume his project to transform the country. “I will have only one compass: to serve,” he vowed, to make France a great ecological nation.
