Emmanuel Macron re-proclaimed president for a second five-year term

Europe 1 with AFP 11:09 a.m., May 7, 2022, modified at 11:17 a.m., May 7, 2022

Laurent Fabius proclaimed Emmanuel Macron President of the Republic for a second term.

"You received 18,779,641 votes, that is to say the absolute majority of the votes. Therefore, the Constitutional Council by virtue of Articles 7 and 58 of our constitution, proclaims you President of the Republic for a five-year term, which begins next Saturday, May 14, at midnight. I express my congratulations to you, "he said in the village hall of the Elysée Palace.

Sarkozy and Holland present at the ceremony

One by one or in groups, the approximately 450 people invited entered the hall of the palace, where the ceremony was to begin at 11 a.m.

There followed Prime Minister Jean Castex, his predecessors Edouard Philippe, Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Manuel Valls, ministers, many elected officials, mainly from the majority like François Bayrou, heads of constituted bodies, academies, religions.. .

Former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande were also welcomed into the village hall to the sound of the first movement of Handel's Oboe Concerto.

They rubbed shoulders, under the golds of the palace, caregivers, the mayors of certain municipalities where the great debate took place in 2019, heads of associations, athletes such as Brahim Asloum, Olympic boxing champion, students from a 6th grade class from Oise labeled Olympic Games 2024. So many guests of the president who recall the stated priorities of the new five-year term, including a reform of the hospital, yet to be specified.

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Also present are the family of Emmanuel Macron, including his wife Brigitte and her daughters, and friends of the couple.

For the ceremony, the Elysée respected the protocol followed by Presidents François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac during their re-elections, with its main stages: reception in the village hall, proclamation of the results by the President of the Constitutional Council Laurent Fabius, speech , cannonade at the Invalides, review of the troops in the garden.

Without leaving either in the main courtyard, or on the Champs-Elysées, or at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris.

It is broadcast live on all the major channels and produced by Jérôme Revon, project manager of several major ceremonies of the quinquennium and adviser to Emmanuel Macron during his campaign.

About fifteen cameras have been installed in the courtyard, the palace and the garden, "an important device, like for a big football match", explained the director to AFP.

Many military

But the event is less spectacular than the investiture of May 14, 2017, when hundreds of journalists and guests watched in the courtyard of honor, and even on the roofs, the arrival of the young president of 39 years on the long red carpet and the departure of his predecessor François Hollande in stride.

This time, the ceremony will be sober, out of respect for the protocol but also by political will after the clear victory of Emmanuel Macron marked nevertheless by a record score of his far-right opponent Marine Le Pen.

The Head of State's speech should recall the main directions he intends to give over the next five years, without however being a general policy speech or addressing topical issues, starting with the choice of a new Prime Minister.

21 cannon shots fired 

"This ceremony aims to establish a sacredness of the Republic. It is part of a long path of political and historical traditions of which the president is the depositary", explained the Elysée.

For historian Jean Garrigues, interviewed by AFP, it represents "the extension of a quasi-monarchical ritual. Basically it is a kind of coronation of the Republican monarch".

At the end of the ceremony, Emmanuel Macron will go out in the park to review the troops to the sound of the Marseillaise but also of the piece "Terre et mer" from Bagad de Lann-Bihoué, already played during the quinquennium to pay tribute to soldiers killed in operation in the Sahel.

The presence of 160 soldiers "is linked to the context of the war in Ukraine but also to Emmanuel Macron's conception of the importance of the French army and to the role of the President of the Republic as head of the armies", considers Jean Garrigues .

As tradition dictates, whose origins date back to the Middle Ages, 21 cannon shots will be fired from the Invalides.

This investiture does not mark the start of the new five-year term: it will officially be necessary to wait for the end of the first, on the evening of Friday May 13 at midnight.

The appointment of the new Prime Minister, the subject of all speculation for several days, will only take place after this date.

Until then, "the government is hard at work to act, protect the French, take all the necessary decisions, and the time for individual decisions and appointments has not come," spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Wednesday. , reporting remarks by the Head of State.