Francois
Hollande to be sworn in as France president
Francois Hollande
will be in Germany within hours of his swearing in
Francois
Hollande is set to be sworn in as French president, before travelling to Berlin
to discuss the future of the eurozone with Germany's chancellor.
He
will be the first Socialist leader since 1995 to occupy the Elysee Palace.
Mr
Hollande will later try to "find a compromise" with Angela Merkel
over the German-led focus on austerity as the way out of Europe's economic
crisis.
On
Monday, the value of stock markets and the euro fell amid continuing political
uncertainty in Greece.
The
chairman of the eurozone finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker, insisted on
Monday night that they would do "everything possible" to keep Greece
in the euro.
Mr
Juncker said he looked forward to the swift formation of a new Greek
government, nine days after the general election.
But
he also warned that Greece had to continue the "significant efforts"
already made to restructure its economy despite these policies having been
rejected by a majority of voters.
“Start Quote
In
Berlin there is suspicion of Mr Hollande. They do not like the fact that during
the campaign he raised the standard against austerity and championed growth.
Many saw that as a bid to reclaim French leadership in Europe”
Gavin Hewitt Europe editor
Cabinet
posts
Mr
Hollande is expected to be sworn in for a five-year term shortly after meeting
outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace in central Paris at
around 10:00 (08:00 GMT).
The
new leader has asked that the inauguration ceremony be kept as low-key as
possible, and has invited just three dozen or so personal guests to join the
350 officials attending. Neither Mr Hollande's children nor those of his
partner, Valerie Trierweiler, will be there.
The
ceremony will be followed by the traditional procession in an open-topped car
along the Avenue des Champs-Elysees and the laying of the wreath at the Tomb of
the Unknown Soldier underneath the Arc de Triomphe.
Mr
Hollande will then pay tribute to the 19th-Century educational reformer Jules
Ferry and the Nobel Prize-winning chemist Marie Curie.
Inauguration day (GMT)
- 08:00-08:30 Francois Hollande arrives at the Elysee Palace and meets Nicolas Sarkozy
- 08:30-09:30 Inauguration ceremony followed by procession up the Champs-Elysees
- 09:45 Hollande lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, under the Arc de Triomphe
- 11:45 Hollande pays tribute to Jules Ferry in the Jardin des Tuileries
- 12:30 Hollande honours Marie Curie at the Curie Institute
- 13:00 Ceremony at the Hotel de Ville with Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe
His
first lunch as president will be with the former Socialist prime ministers
Pierre Mauroy, Laurent Fabius, Michel Rocard, Edith Cresson and Lionel Jospin.
The
BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says the 57 year old has spent the past week
preparing to take up the presidency, and now the work begins in earnest.
His
first job is to name a new prime minister, who our correspondent says will most
likely be Jean-Marc Ayrault, leader of the Socialist group in parliament, a
German speaker and a close ally.
Michel
Sapin, a key economic adviser to Mr Hollande, is tipped to be finance minister.
'Compromises'
On
Tuesday afternoon, Mr Hollande will fly to Germany for dinner with Chancellor
Merkel, who says she will welcome the new leader "with open arms".
But
her embrace will hide some embarrassment, says the BBC's Europe editor Gavin
Hewitt, after Mrs Merkel openly supported Mr Sarkozy in the election battle.
"We
don't think the same on everything," Mr Hollande acknowledged on French
television on Monday. "We'll tell each other that so that together we can
reach good compromises."
Mr
Hollande has demanded that a European fiscal pact that cracked down on
overspending be renegotiated to include a greater emphasis on measures to
stimulate growth, while Germany insists the treaty must be respected.
Whatever
their differences, the crisis in the eurozone will put them under huge pressure
to compromise, our correspondent says.
Francois
Hollande tells supporters he wants to unite the French
As
the eurozone's two biggest economies - and biggest contributors to its bailout
funds - Germany and France are key decision-makers over the strategy supposed
to pull Europe out of crisis.
According
to official figures released on Tuesday morning, the French economy showed no
growth in the first quarter of 2012. Growth in the final quarter of 2011 was
also revised down to 0.1% from 0.2%.
However,
Germany's economy grew by a stronger than expected 0.5% in the first three
months of the year.
Following
his German trip, Mr Hollande will hold his first cabinet meeting on Thursday
followed by a visit to Washington to meet US President Barack Obama on Friday.
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