Sarkozy Takes Office in France

Photo credit: REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen

The AP reported today that France has a new president.

Nicolas Sarkozy took office Wednesday as the new president of France, waving farewell to the outgoing Jacques Chirac and promising a new era of government that will unite political rivals and give a strong role to women.

Sarkozy said his priorities would include restoring "order and authority" to a nation where riots by largely black and Arab youths erupted in rundown housing projects in 2005, and where tensions and frustration still simmer over discrimination and alienation. He is expected to quickly form a government and has pledged that half the ministers will be women.

Chirac, ending 12 years in power, entrusted the country's nuclear codes to his successor in a private meeting that was a high point of the transition between the two conservatives.

A 21-gun salute from the cannons of the gold-domed Invalides, where Napoleon is buried, heralded the Sarkozy presidency.

The blunt Sarkozy, 52, is the son of a Hungarian immigrant and the first president of France born after World War II.

Let's hope that 21-gun salute is a signal of changes Sarkozy will bring to the more typical French response to the challenges he will face.

Vive le Président!