Emmanuel Macron new french president
© Philippe Wojazer / Reuters
Centrist Emmanuel Macron has won the French presidential election, Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has said. These elections were the first to be held under the state of emergency that was introduced after terrorist attacks in 2015.

French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has confirmed that French voters have chosen Macron as president.

"A new page of our long history is opening this evening, I want hope and confidence to be found again this evening," Macron told AFP, after the first projections were announced.

Marine Le Pen has congratulated Macron on his victory. "The French voted for continuity and I called Monsieur Macron Macron to congratulate him on his election," she said.

Macron's victory shows that the majority of French people wanted to unite around the "values of the republic," outgoing French President François Hollande said. "His big victory confirms that a very large majority of our fellow citizens wanted to gather around the values of the Republic and mark their attachment to the European Union," Hollande said in a statement.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has congratulated Macron on his victory.

The centrist candidate got at least 65 percent of the vote, early projections showed.

BFMTV cited an Elabe poll, which projected that Macron won 65.9 percent of the votes cast, while his rival Marine Le Pen secured 34.1 percent of the vote.

Macron and right-wing candidate Marine Le Pen were neck and neck in the first round of elections that took place on April 23, when Macron got 24.01 percent and his rival Le Pen took 21.30 percent of the vote.

Macron's first round victory was hailed by many EU politicians, including the country's president Francois Hollande and the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini. Macron's first round rivals, conservative Francois Fillon and leftist Benoit Hamon, said they would vote for Macron in the second round of the election.

On Friday evening, hours before the election's day of silence began, Macron's team confirmed that it had suffered a massive hacking attack after a trove of internal documents was released online. The electoral commission urged the media to be cautious about publishing the details.

On Saturday, Macron found himself at the center of a scandal after the leftist newspaper Liberation called on voters to cast their ballots for Emmanuel Macron on the cover of its pre-election day edition. The move was criticized on social media, with some users blasting the promotion as a sign of "no more democracy."


Current President Francois Hollande got 51.6 percent of the votes back in 2012, while Nicolas Sarcozy in 2007 secured 53.1 percent. Jacques Chirac got the highest percent of the votes among presidents of the Fifth Republic - 82.2 percent (2002).