"Everyone said it was impossible. But they didn't know France!".
Le Pen's result, just above 34 per cent with most of the vote counted, was still a historic high for her party. On Sunday night she took to a stage in Paris and called on "all patriots" to join her in opposition to the new president.
After the most closely watched and unpredictable French presidential campaign in recent memory, many voters rejected the runoff choices altogether.
But in a sign of widespread disillusionment, one in three voters abstained or cast a blank ballot.
Congratulatory messages poured in from overseas. "Let us work in France and Spain for a stable, prosperous and more integrated Europe", Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said in a tweet.
A White House statement cited Mr Macron and the French people for "their successful presidential election" and said the United States looks forward to "continuing our close relationship with the French government".
"Macron's election offers stability to Europe's single market, and strengthens the EU's position in the upcoming Brexit negotiations", Margaret Yang of CMC Markets said in a commentary.
The scores registered for Macron, Le Pen and for abstention in the second round of the French presidential election.
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker wrote on Twitter that he was "happy that the French chose a European future", while president of the European Council Donald Tusk congratulated the "French people for choosing Liberty, Equality and Fraternity over tyranny of fake news". Until now, modern France had been governed either by the Socialists or the conservatives.
Macron reached out to Le Pen's supporters in a plea for unity after a vicious election campaign that exposed deep economic and social divisions, as well as tensions provoked by identity and immigration.
Eurosceptics see Macron win as bad news for Brexit
It came as the interim president of Le Pen's National Front said the party will be changing its name. Mr Macron won 65 per cent vote in a convincing win over conservative rival Marine Le Pen.
"If he fails, in five years Mrs. Le Pen will be president and the European project will go to the dogs".
"I am delighted that a leader with a positive ambition for Europe has won this election", said Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny.
"In the lowest-case scenario, En Marche! would still be the largest political grouping, which would be enough to try to constitute a majority".
Hillary Clinton, who lost last year's election to Trump, tweeted, "Victory for Macron, for France, the European Union, & the world". "Today, I'm proud to be French". It recalled similar leaks from Hillary Clinton's US presidential campaign. He starts without a political base in parliament. He will now become the youngest head of state France has seen since Napoleon. Merkel, too, faces elections in September.
"Now we enter combat, " said Didier Roxel, a National Front legislative candidate.
By getting a little more than a third of the vote, Le Pen shows "there is a lot of anger, there's a lot of frustration, many grievances on the part of the voters", Mellul said.
Her tally was nearly double the score that her father Jean-Marie, the last far-right candidate to make the presidential runoff, achieved in 2002, when he was trounced by the conservative Jacques Chirac. But none presents an existential challenge to the European Union as Le Pen did in France. France's CAC 40 is tipped to jump by 1% when trading begins soon, and it could hit a new nine-year high. But they are still not ready to hand power to the far-right.
He will be the youngest leader in the current Group of Seven (G7) major nations and has elicited comparisons with youthful leaders past and present, from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to British ex-premier Tony Blair and even the late US president John F. Kennedy. Hollande himself decided not to run again.
Macron supports free markets, wants to cut corporation tax from 33 to 25 per cent and wants to reform the European Union while keeping French borders open.
But the vote also showed that France's 67 million people are deeply divided, riven by anxieties about terrorism and chronic unemployment, anxious about the cultural and economic impact of immigration and fearful of France's ability to compete against giants like China and Google.
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