Nicolas Sarkozy succeeded Jacques Chirac as French president on Wednesday, promising to usher in an era of change while holding up wartime sacrifices as an inspiration for the new France he wants to build.
In a day of high pageantry and symbolic gesture, Sarkozy made his inaugural speech under the chandeliers of the Elysee Palace, which will be his home for the next five years.
"I will defend the independence of France. I will defend the identity of France," said the conservative leader, who is the first French head of state to be born after World War Two. "There is a need to unite the French people ... and to meet commitments because never before has (public) confidence been so shaken and so fragile," he said in an apparent dig at Chirac, a former political mentor with whom he now has strained relations.
Sarkozy, who scored a comprehensive election victory on May 6, also pledged to put the fight against global warming and the defence of human rights at the heart of his foreign policy. His first act after his speech was to greet family members, including his wife, Cecilia, who has hardly been seen in public this year, fuelling speculation about their marriage.
Following a private lunch, Sarkozy rode in an opentop car up the Avenue des Champs Elysees, escorted by the mounted Republican Guard, and rekindled the flame at the tomb of the unknown soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe.
He shook hands with well-wishers and laid wreaths at statues of France's World War One and Two leaders, Georges Clemenceau and General Charles de Gaulle, before honouring 35 resistance fighters killed by the Nazis on the outskirts of Paris.
"Children of France, remember that through their sacrifice, these fine men conquered the freedom that you enjoy today," he said. He then flew to Berlin to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel in a trip aimed at underscoring the importance of Franco-German ties that have driven Europe's postwar integration.
Back in Paris, Sarkozy is widely expected to name moderate conservative Francois Fillon as his prime minister on Thursday, and draft centrists and high-profile leftists into a streamlined cabinet which will probably be unveiled on Friday.
Looking to reach across political divides, Sarkozy is expected to name Bernard Kouchner, a Socialist former health minister and human rights campaigner, as his foreign minister.
Chirac, who ruled for 12 years, met Sarkozy in private on Wednesday to give him the launch codes for France's nuclear strike force. He then drove off into retirement, with Sarkozy applauding and waving goodbye from the Elysee Palace courtyard.
The office he assumes as sixth president of France's Fifth Republic wields more powers than any other elected Western leader. Several thousand students and high-school pupils chanting anti-Sarkozy slogans protested against his inauguration on Wednesday in a number of French cities. But there was no sign of the violence that followed his election.
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