The future of France: can Macron’s centre hold?

I was in Paris at the time of Emmanuel Macron’s official inauguration at the Élysée Palace in early May 2022, and watched the ceremony on television with a group of French friends. They had all voted for him, some because he was their preferred choice, others just to keep out Marine Le Pen. But I was struck that those who were most disappointed with him that morning were his own supporters: they complained about his uninspiring campaign, his absence of vision for the next five years, and (a typically French criticism) his lack of eloquence. On the night of his re-election, he read out a dull speech littered with cliches and vague promises of new beginnings. The Macron of 2017, whose campaign book was entitled Révolution, and who had pledged a radical transformation of the political system, seemed to belong to a distant past.

French President Emmanuel Macron reelected:

After winning another five years in the French presidential palace, Emmanuel Macron intends to go back to work straightaway on domestic and foreign policy — but he will soon face crucial parliamentary elections where he may struggle to keep his majority.
Here’s a look at what comes next for Macron and his leadership of France.
The Constitutional Council will publish the presidential election’s official results on Wednesday and Macron will hold a Cabinet meeting.
Macron will then need to set a date for his inauguration ceremony, which must be held by May 13, at the Elysee Palace. He will receive the National Guards’ honors and make a speech.

Haryana chief minister, Manohar Lal Khattar has opened the new Integrated Command and Control Center (ICCC) under the Karnal Smart City project. The new Command and Control Center will enable the functioning of advanced systems such as adaptive traffic control, automatic number plate recognition, detection of red-light violation and speed violation.

With the inauguration of ICCC, a slew of smart traffic management systems in the city went alive. Over 500 CCTV cameras at various locations now enable the functioning of advanced systems such as adaptive traffic control, automatic number plate recognition, detection of red-light violation and speed violation.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has inaugurated Swarnim Vijay Parv commemorating 50 years of India’s victory in the 1971 war. He inaugurates ‘Wall of Fame -1971 Indo-Pak War’ at the inaugural ceremony. Swarnim Vijay Parv is an event commemorating the valour & professionalism of the Armed Forces and their contribution to the liberation of Bangladesh in the Indo-Pak 1971 war, at India Gate Lawns in New Delhi on December 12, 2021.
The event marks the culmination of year-long celebrations of 50 years of India’s victory in 1971. The event will be opened to the public after the inauguration. Many dignitaries, including those from Bangladesh, will be present.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated the newly constructed building of Kendriya Hindi Sansthan in Meghalaya on Sunday, November 21. The new institute at East Khasi Hills will work for the benefit of teachers of Hindi and people eager to learn and do research in the language and will cater to states of Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, the minister expressed. Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma was present during the inauguration programme.

Addressing the event, the minister said that NEP 2020 is a visionary approach to transform the education landscape of the country and to achieve the realistic goal and to percolate its ripple effect to the grassroots. One of most important salient features of NEP, the Minister said, is that NEP-2020 emphasised on imparting education in Mother language at the primary level and the government is striving to achieve the target within the stipulated time frame.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Kushinagar International Airport today. On the occasion of inauguration of Kushinagar International Airport, Uttar Pradesh, Ministry of Tourism has organised a two days’ conference titled “Tourism in Buddhist Circuit – A way forward” on 20th & 21st October 2021 at Kushinagar.

The conference was inaugurated by the Union Minister for Tourism, Culture & DoNER G. Kishan Reddy in the august presence of Union Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia; Minister of State for Culture Arjun Ram Meghwal;Minister of State for Civil Aviation General (Retd.) V K Singh and Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture Ms. Meenakshi Lekhi. On this occasion Secretary Tourism, GoI Arvind Singh; Director General of Ministry of Tourism G K V Rao and other officials of the Ministry were also present. After inaugural session, an interactive session with the tourism stakeholders, media etc. was held which resulted in number of valuable suggestions from the stakeholders as well as the Ministers.

Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Sunday inaugurated the country's first "Sports Arbitration Centre of India" in Gujarat which will serve as an independent body to fast track disputes in the sports sector. (More Sports News)

Rijiju said this centre will have "a far-reaching impact" and play an important role in expanding the country's sports sector.
Sports Arbitration Centre of India (SACI) is going to give a major push to make the sports sector big. Because when the sector grows, there will emerge lots of issues attached to it. So you have provisions to handle those emerging issues," he said after the inauguration.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was sworn in on Monday for a second five-year term.

His inauguration comes as a nearly year-long war in the northern region of Tigray spreads into other parts of the country and watchdogs warn that repressive government practices are on the return.

On the occasion of the 152 birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the renovated Gandhi Museum was inaugurated at the historic Gandhi Ashram Trust at Noakhali in Bangladesh.
The inauguration was done by the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Dr A K Abdul Momen, Law Minister Advocate Anisul Huq and High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Vikram Doraiswami.

Nagaland’s first and India’s 61st Software Technology Park of India (STPI) centre was inaugurated at Kohima. The inauguration of the STPI centre in Kohima is a fulfilment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of creating a technology ecosystem in the northeast to create opportunities for future generations in the region.