Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party has topped the European election vote in France, dealing a blow to the pro-European, centrist president, Emmanuel Macron.

Exit polls showed Le Pen’s party coming first with around 23.5% of the vote, ahead of Macron’s centrist grouping on around 22.5%.

Le Pen said she was “overjoyed” and called the result a “victory for the people”. She called on Macron to dissolve the French parliament and call fresh legislative elections, something Macron’s governing centrist party brushed aside.

The result is symbolically damaging to Macron because he put himself centre stage of a bruising and personal election campaign, styling himself as a champion for Europe and defining the vote as an existential fight between pro-Europe progressives and eurosceptic, far-right nationalists.

France’s prime minister, Édouard Philippe, said he was “humbled” by the result, warning that the far right was “election after election, rooting itself in the French political landscape”. He said it was not enough to call the far-right vote an “angry” reflex, rather it was clear people were turning to “extreme” solutions to their problems. He said the centrist government was determined to make politics “more human” and deliver policy “results” to counter this rise of the far-right.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest French president, Emmanuel Macron, exits a voting booth in Le Touquet, northern France. Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AP

The vote was the first midterm test for Macron and his centrist party, after six months of gilet jaunes (yellow vest), anti-government protests that resulted in riots, death and injuries across France.

France had an unexpectedly high turnout estimated to be more than 50% – the highest in decades – and higher than the last parliamentary elections.

The Green party scored highly with more than 12% of the vote and the old mainstream governing parties on the right and left confirmed their decline. Les Républicains, the rightwing party of Nicolas Sarkozy, won only about 8%, and was beaten by the Greens.

On Sunday, as voters went to the polls, it was clear that turnout was high in areas with strong support for Le Pen, including in Pas-de-Calais in the north and Picardie, as well as in rural areas where the yellow vest protests on roundabouts began last autumn.

The French far-right election campaign, headed by a slick young candidate from the Paris banlieue, Jordan Bardella, had steadily grown in support since January. Bardella, 23, is now set to become one of the youngest ever members of the European parliament.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jordan Bardella, head of the European election campaign for the far-right National Rally party. Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP

Le Pen, who took over the far-right party from her father in 2011 and recently changed its name, is experienced at shaping European election campaigns as a national protest vote against those in power— her party also came first in the last European elections in 2014.

Le Pen pitched this campaign as the ultimate protest vote — her party’s main message was “Stop Macron” — styling it as a referendum against the centrist young leader whose popularity has slumped.

Le Pen no longer wants France to leave the EU in a so-called Frexit – nor to leave the euro currency. Instead, along with other populist, far-right and national allies such as Italy’s deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, she is seeking to unpick the bloc from the inside, promoting what she calls “a union of national states”.

Coming first in the European vote was personally very important for Le Pen because her standing within her party depends on it. She has struggled to recover from a poor and erratic final presidential TV debate against Macron two years ago in the presidential final in 2017. A strong European election score would allows her reassert her position within her own party and secure her candidacy for the next presidential race in 2022. It is also important for Le Pen’s standing with her new group of international allies, including Italy’s Salvini.

Steve Bannon, the former White House strategist for Donald Trump, who has described himself as an informal adviser to nationalist parties in Europe, arrived in France during the election campaign saying “of all the elections happening this weekend in Europe” those in France were “by far the most important”. He predicted “an earthquake” for Le Pen, saying Salvini, Le Pen and the UK’s Nigel Farage could head four of the biggest political parties present in the European parliament.

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Macron had called the elections “the most important since 1979” warning the EU was facing “an existential risk” from nationalists seeking to divide the bloc.

Coming second does not in theory change Macron’s ability to govern at home, where he still has a large parliamentary majority. But having staked so much personally on the campaign – including appearing alone on election posters – the second-place position is a symbolic set back for the delivery of his pro-business project to overhaul the welfare state at home, as well as his ability to influence the European debate.

The Paris government is preparing several major political changes – namely the unemployment benefits system and pensions, and yellow vest protests are continuing, even if the numbers of protesters are down.