Last Updated: May 8, 11:45 a.m. The French public delivered a crushing blow to the hopes of extreme nationalists from Congress to the Kremlin on Sunday, by electing the moderate, pro-European Emmanuel Macron president, in a landslide victory over the candidate of the far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen, who campaigned on a promise to leave the European Union.

Avec le nouveau Président ?? @EmmanuelMacron. Émue.

Merci. Mon pays tu as l'audace de tout. Tu es grand. pic.twitter.com/uztAEtGC5t — Axelle TESSANDIER (@axelletess) May 7, 2017

Initial projections released as soon as the polls closed, and borne out by the final vote tallies later, put the scale of Macron’s victory at two-thirds of valid votes cast, thrilling supporters who gathered outside the Louvre in Paris.

Photo: Laurent Cipriani/AP





?? #Presidentielle2017 Résultats globaux du 2nd tour :

E. MACRON : 65,68 % des exp.

M LE PEN : 34,32 % des exp.

??https://t.co/zLC5x01inp pic.twitter.com/zesOFJif0w — Ministère Intérieur (@Place_Beauvau) May 8, 2017

As the mayor of Paris noted on Twitter, Macron took 90 percent of the votes cast in the French capital — but he also swept all but two of France’s 102 départements.

À #Paris, 90% des suffrages pour @EmmanuelMacron et seulement 10% pour l'extrême-droite. Fière des Parisiens ! — Anne Hidalgo (@Anne_Hidalgo) May 7, 2017

Still, Macron will be forced to confront widespread dissatisfaction with France’s political system, reflected in depressed turnout — with over a quarter of voters abstaining — and the fact that a record number of registered voters, close to 9 percent, went to the polls but only to cast ballots that were blank or otherwise spoiled as a form of protest.

France final count: Macron 66.1% of valid votes cast to Le Pen's 33.9. Of all registered voters: Macron 44%, Le Pen 22%, Neither 34%. pic.twitter.com/cgddg9nMTH — Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) May 8, 2017

That Le Pen managed to get about a third of the valid votes for her extremist appeal to xenophobic French nationalism was variously seen as a triumph for moderation or a frightening advance, 15 years after her father had garnered less than 18 percent in the 2002 election.

Marine Le Pen projected to take around 11 million votes, double her father's score in 2002 #Presidentielle2017 — Angelique Chrisafis (@achrisafis) May 7, 2017

Two ways to look at this. 1. Macron by a landslide. 2. Le Pen gets over 10 million votes. — Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) May 7, 2017

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the charismatic leader of the new, left-wing France Insoumise movement, who had refused to endorse Macron, hailed the defeat of Le Pen in a YouTube statement — in which he pointed out that she actually finished third in the election, given that more registered voters either abstained or spoiled their ballots than voted for her.

Marine Le Pen arrive 3e de ce second tour après monsieur #Macron, et l'abstention et les votes blancs. #DirectJLM https://t.co/84bJrN9oRm — Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) May 7, 2017

For her part, Le Pen promised to continue her attempts to bring her far-right, racist movement into the mainstream, announcing plans to change it’s name. She then hit the dance floor, where a handful of journalists who had not been expelled from the party for overly critical coverage of the candidate filmed her dancing to Joan Jett and The Village People.

Marine Le Pen may have lost tonight, but she is winning the dancing! @FT pic.twitter.com/mol9RGSlUa — Michael Stothard (@MStothard) May 7, 2017

? #Présidentielle2017 : Marine Le Pen danse un rock sur YMCA des Village People ?? pic.twitter.com/mgJAq6q8lO — FRANCE 24 #Politique (@PolitiqueF24) May 7, 2017

Others fiercely opposed to Le Pen’s politics allowed themselves a moment to celebrate the humbling of the alt-right internationale. Pierre Haski, a former deputy editor of Libération, the left-wing daily, even trolled Le Pen’s supporter in the White House, Donald Trump, for his tweeted congratulations to Macron.

And thank you to French voters for not choosing a Trump-like candidate. https://t.co/v47rljHgNf — pierre haski (@pierrehaski) May 7, 2017

Others, in France and abroad, shared memes mocking the humiliated international “fachosphere.”

Coucou la fachosphère ? pic.twitter.com/GkmpA0JZic — Pierre Schydlowski (@PSchydlowski) May 7, 2017

When Macron arrived at the Louvre to celebrate with supporters, he emerged to the strains of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” which is the anthem of the European Union.

Accompanied by "Ode to Joy" and cheered by overjoyed supporters, Macron arrives at rally after French election win: https://t.co/mx5TaqVbLz pic.twitter.com/1AdhDbe09a — ABC News (@ABC) May 7, 2017

That gesture to European solidarity — and a phone conversation with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel — was quickly taken as an affront by Le Pen’s extreme nationalist supporters, including her deputy, Florian Philippot, who claimed that Macron’s first act had been to replace the French national anthem with Europe’s.

1er acte de Macron : tuer la Marseillaise et enrôler la France éternelle, le Louvre, dans l'Europe fédérale et son "hymne". Résistons. — Florian Philippot (@f_philippot) May 7, 2017

In fact, after Macron made a point of hushing boos for Le Pen during his speech — telling her supporters that he would do everything he could over the next five years to ensure that they no longer had reason to vote for an extremist — his rally ended with the French anthem, “La Marseillaise,” being sung from the stage and the crowd.

Macron’s new political movement now faces an immediate challenge in the form of legislative elections next month, in which it will have to win a majority of seats despite fielding a slate of unknown candidates drawn largely from outside the political system. To gain a majority in Parliament, Macron’s candidates will have to defeat rivals from the mainstream parties of the left and the right, as well as Le Pen’s nationalists and members of a new grassroots political movement of the far-left, France Insoumise, or France Unbowed. After Macron’s victory was confirmed, two leaders of France Insoumise, Raquel Garrido and Alexis Corbiere, suggested that while there is an anti-fascist majority in France, the legislative elections would reveal far less support for Macron’s neoliberal economic policies. “We don’t know if Macron will have a majority in the National Assembly,” Garrido tweeted. “It could be that Macron will be the opposition!”

"On ne sait pas si Macron sera majoritaire à l'@AssembleeNat ! Ce sera peut-être Macron qui sera à l'opposition !" - @RaquelGarridoFI — La France insoumise (@FranceInsoumise) May 7, 2017

“We welcome the defeat of Le Pen,” Corbiere added, “but Macron does not have a political majority for his project.”

. @alexiscorbiere Nous nous félicitons de la défaite de Le Pen, mais Macron n'a pas de majorité politique à son projet. #FranceInsoumise — La France insoumise (@FranceInsoumise) May 7, 2017

Polling appeared to bear that prediction out, suggesting that less than 40 percent of France wants Macron to govern with a majority in Parliament.

Mélenchon, the France Insoumise leader, expressed hope that, after a presidential election marked by “rejection and fear,” the vote for Parliament would be an opportunity “to make a positive choice.”