Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron was re-elected on Sunday against his rival Marine Le Pen and prompting a wave of relief in Europe that the far-right had been kept out of power.

Centrist Macron was set to win around 58% of the vote in the second-round run-off compared with Le Pen on 42%, according to projections by polling firms for French television channels based on a sample of the vote count. Macron is the first French president to win a second term for two decades, but Le Pen’s result also marks the closest the far-right has ever come to taking power in France.

French President Emmanuel Macron in his victory speech on the Champ de Mars in central Paris at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, Macron vowed to respond to the anger of voters who backed his far-right rival, saying his new term would not continue unchanged from the last five years. An answer must be found to the anger and disagreements that led many of our compatriots to vote for the extreme right. It will be my responsibility and that of those around me, he told thousands of cheering supporters.