French President François Hollande has confirmed that Emmanuel Macron will be inaugurated next Sunday as the pair attended their first public meeting together since the centrist's resounding election victory yesterday, reports RTE.
Mr Hollande smiled and clasped the arms of his one-time economy minister as the two men attended a ceremony at Paris's Arc de Triomphe to commemorate victory over the Nazis in World War II.
The president walked beside Mr Macron to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the monument, where they laid a wreath.
Mr Hollande plucked Mr Macron from obscurity three years ago when he named the former investment banker his economy minister, marking the start of his meteoric rise to his electoral victory over far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
Mr Macron's victory, which also smashed the dominance of France's mainstream parties, will bring huge relief to European allies who had feared another populist upheaval to follow Britain's vote to quit the EU and Donald Trump's election as US president.
With all votes counted, Mr Macron had topped 66.1% against 33.9% for Ms Le Pen - a gap wider than the 20 or so percentage points that pre-election surveys had suggested.
Even so, it was a record performance for the Front National, a party whose anti-immigrant policies once made it a pariah, and underlined the scale of the divisions that Mr Macron must now try to heal.