PARIS (AP) - The Latest on the inauguration of French President Emmanuel Macron (all times local):
5 p.m.
France’s new president has made his first visit after his inauguration to a military hospital in the Paris suburb of Clamart.
Emmanuel Macron’s team says that he went to Percy hospital to meet with soldiers wounded in combat. The media weren’t allowed to cover the visit.
Macron’s entourage says that the visit marks the president’s will to show “deep empathy toward the people fighting for freedom” in France and around the world. He met with two soldiers injured during French operations in Mali last year and one wounded in Afghanistan in 2010.
Macron, a 39-year-old centrist with pro-business and pro-European views, was formally declared president Sunday morning in the Elysee presidential palace, one week after winning the May 7 vote.
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1:30 p.m.
France’s newly inaugurated paying tribute at the tomb of the unknown soldier beneath the Napoleonic triumphal arch in a highly symbolic ceremony.
After Emmanuel Macron was formally declared president Sunday in the Elysee Palace, 21 cannon shots were fired from across the Seine River at the Invalides monument, where Napoleon is entombed.
Macron then walked alone across the cobblestones of the Champs-Elysees avenue to the Arc de Triomphe, where he lay a wreath and re-ignited the flame at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
France’s youngest-ever president and new commander-in-chief waved to supporters taking selfies and greeted veterans and military officers in formation beneath the arch. Macron won France’s presidential election May 7 on a pro-European, business-friendly platform.
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1:15 p.m.
As he leaves the French presidency, Francois Hollande is describing the “terrible ordeals” that marked his five-year term, from deadly attacks in France to Greece’s debt crisis.
Hollande defended his unpopular presidency in a series of tweets minutes after leaving the Elysee presidential palace in the hands of his successor and protege, Emmanuel Macron.
The messages were directed at members of his once-powerful Socialist Party, which is now on the verge of a collapse.
Hollande vaunted his efforts to produce the Paris Agreement on fighting climate change, legalizing gay marriage in France and doing “everything possible to ensure that Greece stays in Europe.”
He tweeted that “we lived through crises but we held together. France remained France.”
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12:01 p.m.
New French President Emmanuel Macron says he will do everything that is necessary to fight terrorism and authoritarianism and to resolve the world’s migration crisis.
The 39-year-old centrist, speaking Sunday in his inauguration speech at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris, says “we will take all our responsibilities to provide, every time it’s needed, a relevant response to big contemporary crises.”
He also listed “the excesses of capitalism in the world” and climate change among his future challenges.
Macron says all countries in the world are “interdependent … we are all neighbors.” He announced his determination to push ahead with reforms to free up France’s economy and pledged to press for a “more efficient, more democratic” European Union.
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11:25 a.m.
France has inaugurated new president, Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old independent centrist who was elected on May 7.
The president of the Constitutional Council, Laurent Fabius, proclaimed the official result of the vote in a ceremony Sunday at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris.
Macron formally took power after his predecessor, Socialist Francois Hollande, met with him for one hour and left.
Macron is the youngest president in the country’s history and the 8th president of France’s Fifth Republic, created in 1958. His Republic on the Move movement hopes to reinvigorate French politics and win a majority of lawmakers in the June parliamentary election.
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11:15 a.m.
Francois Hollande, France’s former president, has left the Elysee presidential palace in Paris, following a one-hour meeting with his successor Emmanuel Macron.
He was loudly applauded by the employees of the French presidency at his departure. He shook hands with Macron, who accompanied him to his car and also applauded him.
Macron then posed for photographers at the front porch of the Elysee with his wife, Brigitte.
Macron, 39, had been Hollande’s top economy adviser from 2012 to 2014, then became his economy minister until last year, when he decided to quit the Socialist government and launch his independent presidential bid.
Macron’s formal inauguration ceremony was to start shortly in the reception hall of the presidential palace.
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10:20 a.m.
France’s President-elect Emmanuel Macron has arrived at the Elysee presidential palace for his inauguration ceremony.
The 39-year-old Macron slowly marched alone, under a light rain, in the Elysee courtyard. He shook hands with his predecessor, Francois Hollande, at the front porch and the two men briefly posed for photographers.
Macron had been Hollande’s top economy adviser at the Elysee from 2012 to 2014, then became his economy minister until last year, when he decided to quit the Socialist government and launch his independent presidential bid.
He is the first French president who doesn’t originate from one of the country’s two mainstream parties. His Republic on the Move movement hopes to reinvigorate French politics and win a majority of lawmakers in the June parliamentary election.
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8 a.m.
France’s new President Emmanuel Macron is formally taking power during a ceremony at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris.
His predecessor, Francois Hollande, is to welcome him in the courtyard Sunday in front of hundreds of journalists.
The two are meeting in the president’s office before Hollande’s departure, taking a last few minutes to discuss the most sensitive issues facing France, including the country’s nuclear codes.
Macron takes charge of a nation that, when Britain leaves the European Union in 2019, will become the EU’s only member with nuclear weapons and a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.
Macron will then make a speech in the Elysee reception hall in front of about 300 guests, officials and family members, including his wife Brigitte Macron, in a lavender blue dress designed by French designer Nicolas Ghesquiere for Louis Vuitton.
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