Francois Hollande was sworn in as president of France on Tuesday with a solemn vow to find a new growth-led strategy to end the debt crisis threatening to unravel the eurozone. After brief ceremonies and a rain-lashed walkabout, the 57-year-old Socialist was to dash to Berlin to confront Chancellor Angela Merkel over their very different visions as to how to save the single currency bloc. "Power will be exercised at the summit of the state with dignity and simplicity," Hollande declared in an inaugural address to Socialist leaders, trade unionists, military officers, churchmen and officials. "Europe needs plans. It needs solidarity. It needs growth," he said, renewing his vow to turn the page on austerity and invest for the future, and implicitly underlining his differences with Merkel. "To our partners I will propose a new pact that links a necessary reduction in public debt with indispensable economic stimulus," he said. "And I will tell them of our continent's need in such an unstable world to protect not only its values but its interests." Hollande was also to make the much-anticipated announcement of who will lead his government as prime minister, with Jean-Marc Ayrault, the head of the Socialists' parliamentary bloc, tipped as favourite.