(CNN) By turning to Emmanuel Macron as its new president, France has elevated a charismatic new leader in the great political battle between globalism and nationalism that is underway in Western democracies. 
 
 The 39-year-old's win over far-right candidate Marine Le Pen Sunday in the second round of the French election represents liberal internationalism's most significant response yet to the populist tsunami that yielded President Donald Trump and Brexit and ended a crop of establishment political careers. 
 
 Macron, a proponent of globalization, centrist politics and the European Union, in effect erected a bastion against the unconventional and disruptive forces that have roiled developed world politics over the last year. 
 
 "This is our civilization that's at stake, our way of life," Macron said shortly after his victory, in which he took around 66% of the vote against Le Pen. 
 
 But it would be premature to declare that the populist wave has reached a high-water mark, given the recent turbulence in international politics. And Macron, who ran as an outsider despite establishment credentials, does bear some resemblance -- in his light political resume if nothing else -- to the neophyte leaders who have come from nowhere to shake up politics. 
 
 The French campaign trod what has become familiar ground in big Western elections over the last year. It saw the older, establishment politicians crushed as they failed to identify and adapt to waves of change. None of the traditional parties reached the run-off as voters in France, like elsewhere, soured on the same old choices. 
 
 As with the Brexit referendum and the US election last year, the election was fought on the fault line between well-off, cosmopolitan, urban elites and insurgents who tapped the frustrations of rural, less-educated and poorer voters, ones who are fixated on immigration policies and feel disenfranchised in a global economy that has hemorrhaged blue collar jobs. 
 
 A fresh-faced candidate wins 
 
 But this time, the elite candidate -- albeit one whose youth and outlook suggested a break from older, more conventional political forces -- came out on top. In effect, Macron ran on insider ground while adopting the rhetoric and habits of an outsider. 
 
 The graduate of exclusive French schools who become a banker and finance minister formed his own party "En Marche" to escape the taint of the political establishment. His youth was a break from the past in itself. He will be the youngest French president ever and the youngest French leader, period, since Napoleon. 
 
 That sense of freshness could help break the somber mood that has settled over French politics for years -- though his inexperience will also test him. 
 
 Such attributes allowed him to separate himself from old-school politics and the establishment "swamp" in a way that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, with her decades at the center of Washington intrigue, failed to do last year. 
 
 Macron's victory is likely to be studied by other centrist hopefuls in Europe and the United States as they struggle to combat the powerful economic message of candidates like Trump. 
 
 JUST WATCHED What to know about Emmanuel Macron Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH What to know about Emmanuel Macron 01:32 
 
 He will have to tackle the question of how to reach out to those who have given up on politics as usual and who find the promises of Trump and candidates like him so attractive. 
 
 In fact, Macron's enthusiastic support for the EU and globalization was an implicit rebuke to the instincts of Trump and those who successfully campaigned for Britain to leave the European Union. 
 
 He portrayed himself as a reformer, but as a bulwark against the forces of disruption dedicated to tearing down institutions rather than repairing them. 
 
 But he also took aim at the hidebound realities of French politics by warning of public spending cuts and more free market reforms designed to kick-start France's highly regulated economy. 
 
 Macron's triumph will buck up establishment figures who have had little to cheer in recent months: He was endorsed by former President Barack Obama, who is seeing his own legacy dismantled by the populist Trump. Macron also carried the hopes of European elites like German Chancellor Angela Merkel. 
 
 Trump, however, had seemed to hint earlier in the race that he preferred Le Pen. The US President has struck similar themes to Le Pen on Islamic terrorism and immigration. And following a terrorist attack in Paris last month, he tweeted: "Will have a big effect on presidential election!" 
 
 Reinforcing the EU 
 
 Despite the idiosyncrasies of the French race, many European analysts believe that Macron's win sent an unequivocal signal at an existential moment for EU unity. 
 
 "This is a victory of values, the values of the Enlightenment, the values of France, the values on which America was founded, the values from which the US and the UK have gone significantly astray," said Nicholas Dungan, an Atlantic Council senior fellow, who teaches at Sciences Po, a top international research university in France that counts Macron as among its most distinguished alumni. 
 
 "This is the end of know-nothing populism," he said. 
 
 Macron's victory is already being seen as an invigorating boost for the European Union, which was knocked sideways by the British decision to exit and would have faced a meltdown had Le Pen, an avowed opponent of the European bloc, won. 
 
 "The French electorate clearly said after Brexit, against all the forecasts from the Dr. Dooms of this world, that they were against Frexit and against leaving the Eurozone," said Philippe Le Corre, a Brookings Institution visiting fellow, who is a former French Defense Ministry official. 
 
 Just as Trump raged against Washington, Le Pen played into frustration with distant EU bureaucrats among blue collar voters, a tactic that proved potent for "Leave" campaigners in the British referendum. 
 
 JUST WATCHED Macron addresses nation after election Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Macron addresses nation after election 02:05 
 
 But this time, the anti-establishment fury was not enough. 
 
 In dramatic scenes Sunday, Macron, whose supporters often waved EU flags alongside those of the French tricolor, marched to his victory rally at the Louvre in Paris to the strains of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" — which serves as the European anthem. 
 
 In many ways, the trauma of the UK's vote to leave Europe, which was warmly and repeatedly welcomed by Trump as a political achievement akin to his own shock election victory, appears to have concentrated the minds of French voters. 
 
 "The Brexit vote, you could even say, helped (Macron), because it helped France realize the importance of the European Union," said Dominic Thomas, head of the Department of French and Francophone Studies at UCLA, on CNN International. 
 
 There are some reasons to think that the populist wave has broken. 
 
 Le Pen's defeat follows a showing of far-right leader Geert Wilders in the Dutch election in March that fell short of expectations. In local council elections across the Channel last week, meanwhile, the UK Independence Party, which campaigned for Brexit, was all but wiped out. A surge by a right-wing populist party in Germany, the AfD, appears to have peaked ahead of Merkel's re-election bid in the fall. 
 
 Yet it would be premature to dismiss populist, anti-establishment sentiments as a force in modern Western politics. For one thing, some establishment parties have adopted populist positions -- one reason why UKIP voters, for instance, are moving back towards the Conservative Party in Britain ahead of a general election in June. 
 
 Le Pen splits France 
 
 And after all, Le Pen managed to garner around 34% of the vote in the second round of an election which opened up deep splits in French society. 
 
 Still, Macron's presidency may not count for much unless he is able to address the feelings of economic disenfranchisement and blight that have forced themselves to the fore in elections in the Western world over the last year. 
 
 Macron signaled in his victory speech that he understood the stakes, asking his supporters not to boo Le Pen or her partisans. 
 
 "They expressed today anger, dismay and sometimes strong beliefs. I respect them but I will do everything over the next five years to make sure there is no reason at all to vote for extremes," Macron said. 
 
 The new French President will also have to consider how to frame his relations with the United States and Trump, whom he will now encounter at the G7 and NATO summits in Europe this month. 
 
 Populist influences in the White House, including political guru Steve Bannon, have been openly critical of the European Union. 
 
 But Trump played it straight down the line on Sunday, writing on Twitter: "Congratulations to Emmanuel Macron on his big win today as the next President of France. I look very much forward to working with him!" 
 
 Macron, for all his philosophical, generational and temperamental differences with Trump, is likely to move carefully, stressing areas of agreement with the administration -- on fighting terrorism for instance. 
 
 But he is likely to be critical of Trump in places where the US and France differ, like climate change. ||||| Image copyright AFP Image caption Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen will go head-to-head in just under two weeks' time 
 
 Centrist Emmanuel Macron has gone through to the second round of the French election, where he will face far-right leader Marine Le Pen. 
 
 Mr Macron, a former banker, is seen as a political newcomer - and ran without the backing of an established party. 
 
 After topping Sunday's vote, he is now favourite to win the run-off on 7 May. 
 
 It is the first time in six decades that neither of France's main left-wing or right-wing parties has had a candidate in the second round. 
 
 How tight is the race? 
 
 Mr Macron won 23.8% of votes in the first round, while Ms Le Pen took 21.5%. The turnout was high, at almost 79%. 
 
 The nearest challengers, centre-right François Fillon and hard-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, fell behind with just over 19% each. 
 
 But several political rivals are now expected to unite behind Mr Macron in the run-off vote, in a bid to keep Ms Le Pen's National Front (FN) from power. 
 
 What does Mr Macron stand for? 
 
 At 39, Mr Macron could become the youngest president France has ever had - and the first president in the Fifth Republic who does not belong to a major party. 
 
 He secured 8.4 million votes - more than any other candidate - in the first round. 
 
 Mr Macron was current President Francois Hollande's economy minister but quit to create his own party, En Marche, which pushes a liberal, pro-EU agenda. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Emmanuel Macron: "I hope to become your president" 
 
 His campaign promises include: 
 
 A €50bn (£43bn; $53bn) public investment plan to cover job-training, exit from coal and shift to renewable energy, infrastructure and modernisation 
 
 Big cut in corporation tax and more leeway for companies to renegotiate 35-hour working week 
 
 Cut in jobless rate to 7% (now 9.7%) 
 
 Ban on mobile phone use in schools for under-15s and a €500 culture pass for 18 year olds 
 
 In a victory speech to supporters, Mr Macron borrowed language favoured by his rival to describe himself as the patriotic choice for France. 
 
 "I hope that in a fortnight I will become your president. I want to become the president of all the people of France - the president of the patriots in the face of the threat from the nationalists," he said. 
 
 What about Ms Le Pen? 
 
 Ms Le Pen took over the FN leadership from her father in January 2011 and helped her party secure big gains in regional elections. 
 
 She won 7.6 million votes on Sunday - the strongest ever result for a FN candidate, and 2.8 million more than her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, won for the FN in 2002. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Marine Le Pen: "I am calling on sincere patriots... to join me" 
 
 Her party wants to slash immigration, clamp down on free trade, and overturn France's relationship with Europe. 
 
 Her campaign has called for: 
 
 Negotiation with Brussels on a new EU, followed by a referendum 
 
 "Automatic" expulsion of illegal immigrants and legal immigration cut to 10,000 per year following an immediate total moratorium 
 
 "Extremist" mosques closed and priority to French nationals in social housing 
 
 Retirement age fixed at 60 and 35-hour week assured 
 
 Following the first round results, Ms Le Pen made an "appeal to all patriots", saying a vote for her was the key to the "survival of France". 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Le Pen supporters celebrating her win 
 
 "Wherever they come from, whatever their origin, whatever they voted for in the first round, I invite them all to join us and to abandon ancient quarrels and to concentrate on what is essential for our country," she said. 
 
 Who is likely to win? 
 
 Correspondents say the next head of state is almost certain to be Mr Macron, as most other parties are now backing him. 
 
 But Mr Macron may struggle to get enough of his candidates elected to parliament - where more established parties, such as the Republicans and the Socialists, currently have the most seats. 
 
 Without a majority, Mr Macron would have to negotiate to have his policies approved through the assembly - which could be challenging. 
 
 What do the other candidates say? 
 
 Benoît Hamon, the candidate of President Hollande's Socialist Party who failed to make an impact in the first round, urged those who voted for him to support Mr Macron in the next stage. Mr Fillon has done the same. 
 
 However, Mr Mélenchon has not endorsed either candidate yet. 
 
 Some voters are unhappy with both candidates - hundreds took part in "anti-fascist, anti-capitalist" protests on Sunday night, opposing both Ms Le Pen and Mr Macron. 
 
 Some demonstrators set cars on fire and broke shop windows - police said 143 people were arrested. 
 
 What do the results mean for the EU? 
 
 Analysts and world leaders have been watching the election closely - after the Brexit vote in the UK and election of US President Donald Trump challenged liberal values and the political establishment. 
 
 Many European leaders are now congratulating Mr Macron on the first round results - as they are keen to strengthen the union after Brexit. 
 
 Mr Macron addressed the nation in front of an EU flag as the results came in - something noticed by both pro and anti-EU politicians. 
 
 What does French result mean for Brexit? 
 
 German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, tweeted: "It's good that Emmanuel Macron was successful with his course for a strong EU and social market economy. All the best for the next two weeks." 
 
 European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker also congratulated him, as did EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. 
 
 "The result is the hope and future of our generation," she tweeted. 
 
 Anti-EU politicians, on the other hand, have congratulated Ms Le Pen for making the second round. 
 
 Dutch MP Geert Wilders, who leads the anti-immigration Freedom Party, said the results were a "bright day for patriots in France and elsewhere who want more national sovereignty and less EU and immigration". 
 
 Are you a French citizen? What is your reaction to the result of the first round? You can share your comments by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. 
 
 Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: ||||| The independent centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen have won the first round of the French presidential election, with projected results indicating they secured roughly 23.7 percent and 21.7 percent of votes respectively. Defeating centre-right François Fillion and hard-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, they fought their battle amidst a febrile, hyperbolic milieu–one that is becoming increasingly familiar. Economically and socially divided, stuttering in the face of rapid globalization, and reeling in the wake of increased terror threats, France has now voted for two, diametrically opposed visions of its nation. Macron’s Le Marche! movement is pro-European, pro-business, and socially liberal. Le Pen’s, with its insular focus on sovereignty and nationalism, is sensationalist, inflammatory and anti-immigration. 
 
 Despite the stark ideological chasm separating the two candidates, as they head towards the second round of the elections on May 7, they are united in that they both represent an unprecedented uprooting of the establishment politics of right and left–known as the clivage gauche-droite, which has governed France for decades. In the nearly 60-year history of the Fifth Republic, this is the first time that the second-round contest will feature two outsider candidates. This historic upheaval, interpreted as a grave humiliation for the entrenched and the elite, will have a seismic impact, not just in France, but across the world too. Internationally, focus will be trained acutely on Macron and Le Pen, who now represent the latest frontier in the transatlantic clash between progressive and populistic politics. 
 
 The outcome could signal another victory for the far-right, but Macron is largely expected to win. The tiered French political system was designed by Charles de Gaulle to prevent extremist parties from coming into power, and already, Fillon has urged his followers to vote Macron in order to block Le Pen. “The Front National is well known for its violence, its intolerance, and its programme would lead our country to bankruptcy and Europe into chaos,” he said. “There is no other choice than to vote against the fair right.” French prime minister, Bernard Cazeneuve followed suit, and joined his Socialist party’s defeated candidate, Benoît Hamon, in urging the party’s voters to support Macron too. “I solemnly call for a vote for Emmanuel Macron in the second round in order to beat the Front National and obstruct the disastrous project of Marine Le Pen that would take France backwards and divide the French people.” 
 
 If, however, Le Pen defies the polls (as Brexit and Trump both did), the implications for Britain—hovering on the brink of a snap general election and about to enter into at least two years of complex Brexit negotiations—would be shattering. Already, the E.U. seems set on hard-bargaining the terms of Brexit with prime minister Theresa May. If Le Pen, who also wants to remove France from both the European Union and the euro, gains power, hard-bargaining could swiftly be replaced with no bargain at all. The U.K. is not part of the single currency, and historically has not supported the notion of ever-closer-union. France, on the other hand, remains integral to the EU project. Frexit would send Brexit soaring right down to the bottom of the priority list, leaving May stranded, attempting to negotiate with an aghast, crumbling and distracted E.U.. 
 
 Even if Le Pen loses, as suggested, her last-gasp campaign will be as crudely frenetic as possible. Celebrating today’s victory in France’s northern rustbelt, she declared herself the “candidate of the people”. Energetically stoking fear and division, she will spend the next two weeks vocally berating the E.U., and painting Macron, an ex-banker, as an out-of-touch Clinton-like elite. This is excellent timing for Nigel Farage and his self-named band of Brexit Bad Boys who, post-Brexit, are floundering. Today, UKIPs leader Paul Nuttall suggested his party would campaign for a burqa ban but, behind the typically shocking rhetoric, the reality is, his party has no M.P.s, and no pivotal focus. As Farage once lent fuel to Le Pen’s fire via his Brexit campaign, she will now return the favor. For once, Britain’s far-right will embrace cultural exchange, and the British electorate should brace themselves for Le Pen’s rhetoric to quickly cross the English channel and become integrated, somehow, into their election debate. 
 
 But, as Farage and Le Pen fight for their relevance, Macron emerges as an emollient figure. Representing the strange sight of an anti-establishment centrist politician, he is, uniquely, a product of the current zeitgeist. Just 39 years old, and untested in an elected role, the challenges he faces are gargantuan. If he wins, he will inherit a divided country. But for now, untarnished by actually having to govern, Macron’s extraordinary ascendancy shows that the centre can regain ground. 
 
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– The pollsters were wrong once again with France's presidential runoff election but there was no surprise result this time: Emmanuel Macron defeated far-right candidate Marine Le Pen 66% to 34%, a much bigger margin than the 20 points that had been predicted, Reuters reports. But 34% was still a record for Le Pen's National Front, and analysts say it shows the pro-business, pro-EU Macron has a big struggle ahead to unite a divided nation—as does the fact that in a race between two political outsiders, more than a third of voters either didn't show up or cast a blank ballot. A roundup of coverage: The BBC looks at five reasons for what it calls the "political earthquake" of Macron's victory. They include the scandal that knocked out the initial front-runner, and a strong grassroots operation inspired by Barack Obama's 2008 victory. The result may be a sign that the "populist wave" that led to the Brexit vote and the election of President Trump may be fading, the New York Times reports. "I understand the divisions of our country that have led some to vote for extremists," Macron said after the vote. "I understand the anger, the anxiety, the doubts that a great part among us have also expressed." Governing is going to be the hard part for Macron, who will have to deal with the country's established political parties while implementing his "neither left nor right" policies, EJ Dionne writes in a Washington Post op-ed. "Macron is both a former investment banker and a moderate social democrat," he writes. "Demonstrating how these two sides of him fit together will define the drama of his presidency." The Guardian predicts that there will be no honeymoon period for the 39-year-old president-elect and his "En Marche" movement. As well as the sharp divide between left and right, he has to deal with problems including mass youth unemployment, rising inequality, and the threat of terrorism, which still has the country under a state of emergency. Condoleezza Rice tells USA Today that despite the defeat, Marine Le Pen and similar anti-free trade, anti-immigration populists are still having a worrying effect on politics. "I really do believe that these populists are changing the character of the politics just by being there, so even mainstream candidates are having to respond to their agenda," she says. Vladimir Putin and President Trump were among the world leaders congratulating Macron on Sunday. "I look very much forward to working with him!" Trump tweeted. A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the win as a victory for a "strong and united Europe," France24 reports. CNN notes that centrist candidates in Europe and elsewhere are now looking to Macron for an example of how to defeat candidates like Le Pen amid widespread voter dissatisfaction. Macron's youth—he is France's youngest president ever and its youngest leader since Napoleon Bonaparte became emperor at 34—helped distance him from the political establishment.