Mr.?Francois Hollande?has been sworn in? for a five year term as president of France, becoming the first Socialist leader in 17 years to occupy the Elysee Palace.
During his inauguration, the new French President said he was fully aware of the challenges facing France, including the debt crisis and weak growth.
Hollande said he wants a compromise over the German-led focus on austerity as the way out of the economic crisis.
According to reports, the new leader asked that the inauguration ceremony be kept as low-key as possible, and 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, were there.
After being sworn in, Mr Hollande said :”We are a great nation. Throughout its history, France has overcome the challenges it faced,” he added. “Each time, the people have prevailed while remaining faithful to themselves.””My mandate is to bring France back to justice, open up a new way in Europe, contribute to world peace and preserve the planet.”
The new president said he was aware of challenges facing France, which he summarised as “huge debt, weak growth, reduced competitiveness, and a Europe that is struggling to emerge from a crisis”.
“But I affirm today that there is no fatalism. There is a common will that unites us. We will mobilise all our forces and the assets of France.”
Hollande also said he wanted other European leaders to sign a pact that “ties the necessary reduction of deficit to the indispensable stimulation of the economy”.
“I will tell them the necessity for our continent is to protect, in an unstable world, not only its values but its interests in the name of commercial exchange,” he added.
The ceremony was 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 under the Arc de Triomphe.
Mr Hollande who paid tribute to the 19th-Century educational reformer Jules Ferry and the Nobel Prize-winning chemist Marie Curie also had his first lunch as president with the former Socialist prime ministers Pierre Mauroy, Laurent Fabius, Michel Rocard, Edith Cresson and Lionel Jospin.
However, Mr Hollande has demanded that an 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.
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 Tuesday's 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.