"We can't respond with the same men and the same ideas", Macron said as he launched his presidential bid in November at a jobs training centre in a gritty Parisian suburb.
NPR's Eleanor Beardsley joins us now from Paris. What was the atmosphere like?
Le Pen, who has hardened her anti-immigration and anti-Europe rhetoric over the past week, hailed a "historic vote" in front of her supporters, adding: "The first stage has been passed".
BEARDSLEY: Yeah, this is a year like - a political year like no other. Establishment politicians have been swept away.
Far-right expert Nonna Mayer at Sciences Po university said a Le Pen victory was not impossible, "but it seems unlikely that she will carry the second round". "Macron, I'm relieved because I think he'll succeed in rallying quite a few people", she added. They want renewal. And even though these two scores were close, openness and a pro-European feeling won out.
The French vote was being closely watched as a bellwether for populist sentiment following the election of Donald Trump as US President and Britain's vote to leave the EU. In other words, there's no sure thing.
This was a disappointing election for the established French political parties. This is a totally new age.
With Le Pen wanting France to leave the European Union and Macron wanting even closer cooperation among the bloc's 28 nations, Sunday's outcome means the May 7 runoff will have undertones of a referendum on France's European Union membership.
Jeremy Corbyn 'would be risk to national security', says Michael Fallon
Corbyn, who is struggling to close a wide popularity gap with the ruling Tories, has pledged to turn the page and win the vote. Still, the size of the lead "masks a real danger for the Tories", ComRes Chairman Andrew Hawkins said in an emailed statement.
It is likely that there will be another three week break in Newspoll, with the next one the traditional post-budget Newspoll.
BEARDSLEY: Yes, they're separated by two points. That's because there were 11 candidates. This is the first time that the Socialist Party and the center-right Republicans Party are both absent from the run-off.
Macron, who has styled himself as a liberal progressive outsider set to revolutionize politics, appealed to enough voters to get into the May 7 second round, as early projections put him at the head of the field with about 24% of the vote. And I spoke with Marie Celine Terre, who's very happy that her candidate won, but here's what she said.
The vote happened amid tight security following a terrorist attack in Paris just days before the poll that observers thought would benefit Le Pen.
"From today I want to build a majority for a government and for a new transformation". Jean-Marie Le Pen made it through to the final two run-off in 2002 with 16.86% of the vote, and was eventually crushed by Jacques Chirac.
His deregulation policies, she said, would lead to unjust global competition against France's business interests, mass immigration and free movement of terrorists. The party has a national network in place were Marine Le Pen to become president. But let's look at Emmanuel Macron. Many commentators expect the same fate for his daughter, but she has already drawn far more support than he ever did and she has transformed the party's once-pariah image. "Their desire for change too", 39-year-old Macron told thousands of cheering supporters in Paris. He says he's not left or right but progressive.
In a tweet one day after the Champs Elysees shooting, U.S. President Trump said, "The people of France will not take much more of this".
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