Berlin — French President Emmanuel Macron hit the ground running Monday on his first full day in office by naming a prime minister from the center-right and then flying to Germany, where he and Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged to work together to undertake European reforms.
At home, Macron started to shape his government by appointing relatively little-known lawmaker Edouard Philippe, 46, as his prime minister. That made good on a promise to repopulate French politics with new faces and reinforced the generational shift under Macron,.
Then, a large crowd outside the chancellery welcomed Macron to Berlin, with some waving European Union flags. Macron and Merkel were all smiles inside, and the German leader declared that “Europe will only do well if there is a strong France, and I am committed to that.”
Germany and France have traditionally been the motor of European integration, but the relationship has become increasingly lopsided in recent years as France struggled economically.
German leaders were hugely relieved by the independent centrist’s rout of far-right rival Marine Le Pen in the May 7 presidential runoff, and now they hope that Macron can deliver the economic upturn that his predecessors couldn’t. Macron is the conservative Merkel’s fourth French president in nearly 12 years as chancellor.
Merkel called for “new dynamism” in the countries’ relationship. She said she was “aware of the responsibility, at a very critical moment for the European Union, to take the right decisions together.”
The 28-nation EU faces complex divorce proceedings with Britain, its current No. 2 economy. When Britain leaves the bloc in 2019, France will be the EU’s only member with nuclear weapons and a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.
Macron made clear his determination to tackle his country’s problems.
“The French agenda will be an agenda of reform in the coming months, in economic, social and educational terms,” he said. “Not because Europe requests it, but because France needs it.”
France, he said, “is today the only big country in the European Union that, for more than 30 years, has not succeeded in beating the problem of mass unemployment.”
Macron also declared there needs to be “a Europe that protects our citizens better.” Together with Germany, he said, he wants to work on “a common road map for the European Union and the eurozone.”
Macron faces his first big test next month in legislative elections that will determine how far he is able to advance his reform agenda. He is the first president of modern France to come neither from the mainstream left nor the right parties.