Sarkozy takes over French presidency from Chirac

PARIS – Nicolas Sarkozy took office as France’s president on Wednesday, waving farewell to outgoing leader Jacques Chirac and promising to move quickly and boldly equip the nation for a new era.\nChirac, ending 12 years in power, transferred the nuclear codes to President Sarkozy in a private meeting that was a high point of the transfer of power.\nA 21-gun salute signaled the change in leadership after the 74-year-old Chirac took leave with a handshake at the entrance of the ornate Elysee Palace and walked alone to a waiting car. Sarkozy, with a clenched jaw, returned the wave before turning to enter his new home for the next five years.\nThe blunt-talking, pro-market Sarkozy, 52, the sixth president of the Fifth Republic, founded by Charles de Gaulle in 1958, won election May 6 on pledges of market reforms and a break with the past.\nIn his first speech as president, a determined Sarkozy noted that he was elected with a mandate for change that he was honor-bound to fulfill.\n“The people conferred a mandate on me. ... I will scrupulously fulfill it,” he said, adding that further delays “will be fatal.”\nChirac handed over the helm after two terms marked by lackluster reforms and tensions in rundown, immigrant-packed housing projects far from the glory of the Elysee Palace.