French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday was inaugurated for a new term, making him the first French leader in 20 years to serve a second mandate.
Macron won 58.5 percent of the votes in the second round in April against the far-right’s Marine Le Pen, despite strong opposition to his pro-business policies and a proposal to raise the retirement age.
In a short speech on Saturday, he spoke of the need to innovate at a time of unprecedented challenges for the world and for France, and said his second term would be “new” and not merely a continuation of the first.
“We need to invent a new method together, far from tired traditions and routines, with which we can build a new productive, social and ecological contract,” he said, promising to act with “respect” and “consideration.”
