Marine Le Pen delivers a speech after her election defeat | Ian Langsdon/EPA National Front will change its name after Le Pen’s defeat Leader announces transformation after heavy loss to Emmanuel Macron in presidential election.

PARIS — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Sunday that her National Front party would undergo a "profound transformation" and a top aide said its name would change after a decisive defeat in the presidential election.

"The National Front must also renew itself," Le Pen told supporters near Paris after projections of the election result showed her losing by 34.5 percent to Emmanuel Macron's 65.5 percent. "I will therefore start the process of a deep transformation of our movement ... I call upon all patriots to join us."

National Front Vice President Florian Philippot said the party's name was bound to change as part of the transformation — a possibility that was under discussion during the campaign but never acted upon.

"Marine Le Pen said it clearly: the National Front will change," said Philippot, a key architect of the party's anti-European Union position. "It's going to change into a new political force which, necessarily, will not have the same name."

Le Pen vowed to overhaul her party as part of a strategy to win as many seats as possible in next month's parliamentary election.