Emmanuel Macron, 39, declares ‘tonight, France won’ after smashing Marine Le Pen in landslide victory – becoming the country’s youngest ever President
EMMANUEL Macron declared "France won" after becoming the country's youngest ever President last night - thumping far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.
The pro-EU centrist won a whopping 66 per cent of the vote - a resounding victory for the 39-year-old who has never stood for election before.
While speaking to thousands of his flag-waving supporters outside Paris' Louvre museum, Macron said "everyone said it was impossible. But they didn't know France."
He also vowed to "always tell the truth" before declaring "vive la France".
His victory could have serious implications for Britain's Brexit deal as eurozone-enthusiast Macron appeared in front of his fans with the European Union anthem "Ode to Joy" blaring.
Promising to "defend Europe", he repeatedly said the task before him was "immense".
Earlier, Macron said he will "fight the divisions" in the country after a campaign that laid bare the "anger, anxiety and doubts" of many voters.
"I will fight with all my strength against the divisions that are undermining us," he said in a solemn address at his campaign headquarters.
Le Pen, known for her anti-immigration stance, conceded victory to her rival after winning around 34 per cent of the vote while vowing to continue to fight for her supporters.
British Prime Minister Theresa May also released a statement in which she "warmly" congratulated Macron and said her government was looking forward to working with the new leader.
Macron is the youngest President in France’s history narrowly beating Napoléon Bonaparte’s nephew, Louis-Napoléon, who was aged 40 when he was elected in 1848.
This is the first time in modern French history that the two candidates in the election run-off have not been from either of the two main parties.
MOST READ IN NEWS
Former investment banker Macron won the first round of voting making him the clear favourite going into the final vote against divisive firebrand and anti-EU caniddate Le Pen.
Macron worked as France’s finance minister under disastrous Socialist president Francois Hollande, before breaking away and forming his own party En Marche!.
Macron plans to open up France's economy, lifting restrictions on working hours and Sunday opening hours.
The new president is married to grandmother-of-seven Brigitte Trogneux, 64, who is 25-years his senior and was his teacher at school.
5 TESTS NEW LEADER FACES
By Jonathan Reilly in Paris
- TERRORISM AND SECURITY
FRANCE has suffered a series of terror attacks and many voters blame lack of funding of the security services.
Macron has pledged to recruit 10,000 new police officers while expanding prisons to take 15,000 extra inmates. - ECONOMY
THE country has been mired in a slump for some time. Firms are often stifled by overbearing bureaucracy and generous worker rights. - UNEMPLOYMENT
TEN million are out of work — and almost one in four under-25s do not have a job. Generous welfare stops people taking lower-paid menial jobs. - EUROPE
FRANCE needs to play a central role in reforming the EU after Brexit. Macron vows to give countries using the euro a separate budget and parliament. - IMMIGRATION
A LARGE portion of the population is anti-immigration — which helped fuel the popularity of the National Front.
Macron will have to deal with the issue — while being a staunch supporter of the EU’s freedom of movement rules.
The 39-year-old married Trogneux in 2007 after an illicit affair which started when he was a teenager and she was a married mum-of-three.
Despite her loss, Le Pen's advancement to the run off for the first time marked a breakthrough for the 48-year-old.
She had placed third in the 2012 presidential vote, underscoring a growing acceptance for her fierce anti-immigration, France-first nationalism among disgruntled voters.
Le Pen immediately turned her focus to France's upcoming legislative elections in June, where Macron will need a working majority to govern effectively.
"I call on all patriots to join us," she said. "France will need you more than ever in the months ahead."
Le Pen said she got 11 million votes. If confirmed, that would be double the total of her father, National Front co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, at the same stage in the 2002 presidential election.
The candidates' polar-opposite visions presented the 47 million registered voters with the starkest possible choice.
Le Pen's closed borders faced off against Macron's pro-immigration stance; his commitment to free trade ran against her proposals to protect the French from global economic competition and immigration.
Her desire to free France from the EU and the shared euro currency contrasted with his argument that both are essential for the future of Europe's third-largest economy.
As well as capitalising on voter rejection of the left-right monopoly on power, Macron also got lucky.
One of his most dangerous opponents, conservative former Prime Minister Francois Fillon, was hobbled by allegations that his family benefited from cushy taxpayer-funded jobs for years.
On the left, the Socialist Party imploded, its candidate abandoned by voters who wanted to punish Hollande, France's most unpopular president since World War II.
Hollande himself realised he was un-electable and decided not to run again.
Macron takes charge of a nation that, when Britain leaves the EU in 2019, will become the EU's only member with nuclear weapons and a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.
He has promised to stand up to President Vladimir Putin but said he would also seek to work with the Russian leader on what he says will be one of his top priorities: fighting ISIS, whose extremists have claimed or inspired multiple attacks in France since 2015.
France has been in a state of emergency since then and 50,000 security forces were used to safeguard Sunday's vote.
Macron is expected to keep up French military operations against extremists in Iraq and Syria and Africa's Sahel region, and maintain pressure on Russia over Ukraine and support for Syrian President Bashar Assad.
With the US, Macron says he wants continued intelligence-sharing and cooperation at the United Nations and hopes to persuade Trump not to pull America out of a global emissions-cutting deal against climate change.
President Trump has congratulated Macron on his “big win” and tweeted that he was looking forward to working with him.
Domestically, Macron inherits a deeply troubled and divided nation of 67 million people.
The French are riven by anxieties about terrorism and chronic unemployment, worried about the cultural, economic and religious impact of immigration and fear France's ability to compete against giants like China.
His proposed remedies include both economic reforms and his own infectious, upbeat optimism that France need not resign itself to continuing economic and social decline, especially as part of an EU competing together against other powers.
The campaign ended Friday night with a hacking attack and document leak targeting Macron.
Macron's team said the hack aimed to destabilise the vote. But the timing of the leak appeared too late to have a significant impact on voting intentions.
Polling stations opened their doors yesterday at 08:00 (06:00 GMT) and closed at 19:00 (17:00 GMT).
In some bigger cities open hours extended to 20:00 (18:00 GMT) with early estimates of the results expected to surface immediately after.
Yesterday, topless anti-Le Pen protesters - members of activist group Femen - scaled the side of a church in the candidate's hometown to unveil a huge banner reading: 'Marine in Power, Marianne in Despair'.
This election is the first time neither of the two major parties – the Socialists and Republicans –had a candidate in the final round since the end of World War II.
Macron won the first round two weeks ago with 24 pr cent against Le Pen’s 21 per cent while Republican candidate François Fillon and hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon took 20 per cent of the vote each.
In the French system the two candidates with the largest share of the vote in the first round go through to face each other in the final round known as the run off.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368.