Macron comprehensively wins French presidential election

European markets, and many French people, were breathing a sigh of relief on Monday morning, with the news centrist Emmanuel Macron had crushed controversial far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the weekend’s run-off election to become France’s next president.

With 98% counted, Macron had 20,429,650 votes for 65.8%, double Le Pen’s 10,608,109 votes for 34.2%.

The euro was in a good mood on the result, last moving 0.04% stronger against sterling to €1.1808, and 0.15% against the greenback to €0.9106.

Macron was the country’s youngest ever president at 39, and was also the first president to come from outside the two main parties since the current republic was formed in 1958.

The CAC 40 index in Paris was also looking positive before it opened, with traders expecting the benchmark to add 27 points.