Macron Defeats Le Pen To Become President
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Emmanuel Macron, head of the political movement En Marche !, or Onwards !, and candidate for the 2017 French presidential election, gestures to supporters after the first round of 2017 French presidential election in Paris, France, April 23, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier - RTS13LN5
Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron has decisively won the French presidential election, defeating far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.
Mr Macron won by 66.06% to 33.94% to become, at 39, the country’s youngest president.
Mr Macron will also become the first president from outside the two traditional main parties since the modern republic’s foundation in 1958.
He said that a new page was being turned in French history.
“I want it to be a page of hope and renewed trust,” he said.
Mr Macron said he had heard “the rage, anxiety and doubt that a lot of you have expressed” and vowed to spend his five years in office “fighting the forces of division that undermine France”.
He said he would “guarantee the unity of the nation and… defend and protect Europe.”
Mr Macron’s supporters gathered in their thousands to celebrate outside the Louvre museum in central Paris and their new president later joined them.In his speech to the crowd, he said: “Tonight you won, France won. Everyone told us it was impossible, but they don’t know France.”
But he repeated a number of times that the task facing him and the country was enormous.
He said: “We have the strength, the energy and the will – and we will not give in to fear.”
