Emmanuel Macron has won an historic second term as French president, with his right-wing rival Marine Le Pen conceding defeat after early projections pointed to his comfortable victory.
Mr Macron’s re-election makes him the first French president since Jacques Chirac 20 years ago to win a second term.
It’s projected the centrist politician will defeat his opponent, who was unlucky in her third attempt, by 16 percentage points, securing around 57-58 per cent of the vote.
Ms Le Pen admitted defeat, saying she would keep up the political fight against Mr Macron in the run-up to June parliamentary elections.
Addressing the people at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Mr Macron called for unity in a country that had been “so divided”.
“From now on, I’m no longer the candidate of one camp, but the president of all,” he said.
“I tell those who voted for the far right that my responsibility and that of my team will be to address their concerns.
“This new era…will not continue the methods of the past five years”.
Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte celebrate at the Eiffel Tower. Photo: Getty
Victory for the centrist, pro-European Union Macron was being hailed by allies as a reprieve for mainstream politics that have been rocked in recent years by Britain’s exit from the European Union, the 2016 election of Donald Trump and the rise of a new generation of nationalist leaders.
Mr Macron will join a small club — only two French presidents before him have managed to secure a second term.
But his margin of victory looks to be tighter than when he first beat Le Pen in 2017, underlining how many French remain unimpressed with him and his domestic record.
That disillusion was reflected in turnout figures, with France’s main polling institutes saying the abstention rate would likely settle around 28 per cent, the highest since 1969.
Against a backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing Western sanctions that have exacerbated a surge in fuel prices, Ms Le Pen’s campaign homed in on the rising cost of living as Mr Macron’s weak point.
She promised sharp cuts to fuel tax, zero-per cent sales tax on essential items from pasta to diapers, income exemptions for young workers and a “French first” stance on jobs and welfare.
Supporters of Marine Le Pen react as the result is projected. Photo: Getty
Mr Macron meanwhile pointed to her past admiration for Russia’s Vladimir Putin as showing she could not be trusted on the world stage, while insisting she still harboured plans to pull France out of the European Union — something she denies.
In the latter part of the campaign as he sought the backing of left-leaning voters, Mr Macron played down an earlier promise to make the French work longer, saying he was open to discussion on plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 65.
In the end, as viewer surveys after last week’s fractious televised debate between the two testified, Le Pen’s policies — which included a proposal to ban people from wearing Muslim headscarves in public — remained too extreme for many French.
Ex-merchant banker Mr Macron’s decision to run for the presidency in 2017 and set up his own grass roots movement from scratch up-ended the old certainties about French politics — something that may come back to bite him in June’s parliamentary elections.
Instead of capping the rise of radical forces as he said it would,
Mr Macron’s non-partisan centrism has sped the electoral collapse of the mainstream left and right, whose two candidates could between them only muster 6.5 per cent of the first-round vote on April 10.
One notable winner has been the hard-left Jean-Luc Melenchon, who scored 22 per cent in the first round and has already staked a claim to become Mr Macron’s prime minister in an awkward “cohabitation” if his group does well in the June vote.
-with AAP
