French election results: Emmanuel Macron defeats Le Pen to become President

Projections showed Macron beating Le Pen by around 65% to 35 - a gap wider than pre-election surveys

Emmanuel Macron was elected president of France on Sunday with a business-friendly vision of European integration, defeating Marine Le Pen, a far-right nationalist who threatened to take France out of the European Union, early projections showed.

The centrist’s emphatic victory, which also smashed the dominance of France’s mainstream parties, will bring huge relief to European allies who had feared another populist upheaval to follow Britain's vote to quit the EU and Donald Trump’s election as US president.

The 39-year-old former investment banker, who served for two years as economy minister but has never previously held elected office, will now become France’s youngest