French President-elect Emmanuel Macron laid the groundwork on Monday for his transition to power, announcing a visit to Germany and a name change for his political movement and appearing with his predecessor at a solemn World War II commemoration. Macron handily defeated far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen in Sunday's presidential runoff, and now must pull together a majority of lawmakers for his year-old political movement to run in the mid-June legislative election. His party is changing its name to La Republique En Marche (Republic on the Move) as it prepares a list of candidates. Macron has promised that half of those candidates will be new to elected politics, as he was before his victory Sunday. Macron won the presidency with 66 percent of votes cast for a candidate. But a high number of blank or spoiled votes and unusually low turnout are signs of an electorate dissatisfied with its choices. Le Pen says she will lead the opposition to Macron. On Monday, a French national holiday, the president-elect joined President Francois Hollande in commemoration of the end of World War II. The holiday marks the day of the formal German defeat in World War II. It was the first time the men had appeared in public together since Macron resigned in August 2016 as Hollande's economy minister to run for president — a decision that was received coldly by the French leader at the time, according to French media. On Monday, though, Hollande gripped Macron's arm before the two men walked side by side and then announced the transfer of power would take place on Sunday, a week after the election. Monday also marked decades of peace in Western Europe, something Macron made a cornerstone of his campaign against Le Pen's brand of populism. Le Pen called for France to leave the European Union and drop the euro currency in favor of the franc. Sylvie Goulard, a French deputy to the European Parliament, said Macron would make Berlin his first official visit, with perhaps a stop to see French troops stationed abroad as well. On the financial front, European stock markets edged down in early trading as investors had been widely expecting Macron's victory. Though Macron's victory is considered positive for the region's economy and the euro currency, stocks had risen strongly in the previous two weeks on expectations of his win. France's CAC 40 index, which last week touched the highest level since early 2008, slipped 0.8 percent to 5,391 on Monday. Germany's DAX was down 0.3 percent at 12,683 and Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.1 percent at 7,301. The euro, which had risen Sunday night in the wake of the news of Macron's victory, edged back down 0.5 percent to $1.0943. — Agencies
