Emmanuel Macron waves to supporters next to his wife, Brigitte, after casting his ballot. Photograph: Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images
The pro-EU centrist Emmanuel Macron has won the French presidency with a decisive victory over the far-right Marine Le Pen that his supporters hailed as holding back the tide of populism.
Macron, 39, a former economy minister who ran as a “neither left nor right” independent promising to shake up the French political system, took 65.1% to Le Pen’s 34.9%, according to initial projections from early counts.