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Nine days after he defeated right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy in afierce campaign, Hollande, 57, was to be inaugurated at the ElyseePalace and only hours later head to Germany for his first foreignvisit as president. He was also set to make the much-anticipated announcement of whowill lead his government as prime minister, with Jean-Marc Ayrault,the head of the Socialists' parliamentary bloc, tipped as the heavyfavourite. Hollande is expected to be sworn in shortly after meeting Sarkozyat the Elysee at around 10:00 am (0800 GMT). The ceremony itself will be relatively simple, with no other headsof state invited, and Hollande accompanied only by his partner,journalist Valerie Trierweiler. After the swearing in, Hollande will take an open-topped ride in aCitroen DS5 hybrid up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe,waving to the crowd. In separate ceremonies, he will then pay tribute to 19th-centuryeducational reformer Jules Ferry -- father of France's free,secular education system -- and to Marie Curie, the NobelPrize-winning chemist. At 1400 GMT Hollande will fly to Berlin, where he faces anuncertain reception from Chancellor Angela Merkel, a Sarkozy allyand the main backer of the European Union's fiscal austerity drive. Hollande has vowed to refocus European economic policy on growth byre-opening talks on a fiscal pact agreed in March that aims tocontrol European debt by enshrining greater budget discipline. The deal was Merkel's brainchild and she has repeatedly insistedsince Hollande's election that the pact, signed by 25 of the 27 EUcountries and already ratified in some, is not open torenegotiation. But observers say there is room for compromise, with Hollandelikely to agree to additional stimulus measures without a rewriteof the pact. And with political paralysis in Greece raising the spectre of thecountry being forced from the eurozone, the heads of Europe's twolargest economies will be keen to reassure worried markets they canwork together. New figures released Tuesday showed France's economy stillstagnant, with official statistics agency INSEE saying it recordedno growth in the first quarter of 2012. The agency also revised downward the growth figure for the fourthquarter of 2011, to 0.1% from 0.2%, while maintaining that theeconomy grew by 1.7 percent overall in 2011. Before he heads to Berlin, Hollande's first order of business willbe to nominate a prime minister, who will be tasked with forming agovernment before a first cabinet session likely on Thursday. Ayrault, a 62-year-old longtime Hollande ally, is considered firstin line for the job. "I think he will be named later, yes," Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the headof France's AMF financial markets watchdog and a close associate ofHollande, said on French radio Tuesday when asked about Ayrault. Other contenders include Socialist Party leader and former labourminister Martine Aubry, Hollande's communications director duringthe campaign Manuel Valls and his campaign and transition chiefPierre Moscovici. Once the cabinet is named, the focus will move to the Socialists'campaign to win a parliamentary majority in June's legislativeelections -- a key test for the party after Hollande's win. After Merkel, Hollande heads to the United States where he is tomeet President Barack Obama at the White House on Friday ahead ofback-to-back G8 then NATO summits. These meetings are also expected to be a test for the neophyteleader, as he explains his decision to pull French forces fromAfghanistan by the end of 2012, a year ahead of schedule. I am an expert from smart-interactivewhiteboard.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Universal Projector Mount , Interactive Voting Handsets Manufacturer, Electromagnetic Interactive Whiteboard,and more.
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