Francois Hollande is sworn in on Tuesday morning in Elysee Palace as the French president, the first Socialist head of state after Francois Mitterand quit power in 1995.
The Constitutional Council declared Hollande the president of the Republic of France at the inauguration ceremony in the presidential palace.
The swearing-in ceremony opened at 10:00 a.m. (0800 GMT) by outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy greeting in the courtyard the new president and the two leaders headed into private talks where codes to France’s nuclear arsenal was handed over to Hollande.
In his first brief speech after becoming the president, Hollande vowed “justice will be the only criteria used to make decisions in the public sphere,” echoing the promise he made in his campaign trail of building France into a fair and just society.
He also emphasized on education and training at the focus of his government.
After officially taking over from Sarkozy who failed to seek a second term in the run-off elections on May 6, Hollande starts the five-year mandate by embarking on his challenging promises of bringing changes to the debt-stricken country.
Xinhua