Nicolas Sarkozy, candidate of the conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), was elected President in May 2007, and became the sixth President of the French Fifth Republic on May 16, 2007. He nominated François Fillon as Prime minister, who formed a composite government, a bit modified following the UMP's relative victory during the June legislative election.
The official transfer of power from Jacques Chirac took place on 16 May at 11:00 a...
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Nicolas Sarkozy, candidate of the conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), was elected President in May 2007, and became the sixth President of the French Fifth Republic on May 16, 2007. He nominated François Fillon as Prime minister, who formed a composite government, a bit modified following the UMP's relative victory during the June legislative election.
The official transfer of power from Jacques Chirac took place on 16 May at 11:00 am (9:00 UTC) at the Élysée Palace, where Nicolas Sarkozy was given the nuclear codes of the French nuclear arsenal and presented with the Grand Master's Collar, symbol of his new function of Grand Master of the Legion of Honour. At that point, he formally became president. Leyenda, by Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz was played in honour of the president's wife. Both Sarkozy's mother Andrée, and his formerly estranged father Pal — with whom Sarkozy had reached a reconciliation — attended the ceremony, as did Sarkozy's children. The presidential...
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