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Emmanuel Macron beat far-right National Rally candidate Marine Le Pen for the French presidency, France's Constitutional Council confirmed after verification on Wednesday.
Macron won 58.6 percent of the vote in the second-round run-off compared to Marine Le Pen's 41.4 percent.
The new presidential term begins on May 14, according to the Constitutional Council.
Macron is the first French president in two decades to win a second term, but his latest victory over his far-right rival was narrower than their last face-off in 2017.
On the same day, he paid a surprise visit to Cergy, a suburb of Paris on Wednesday on his first official outing since his re-election.
"I want to give a message of respect and consideration to these areas that are among the poorest in the country right from the start of my new mandate," he told reporters in the area, where far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon won almost half of the votes in the first round of the presidential election.
French parliamentary elections are scheduled on June 12 and 19, a crucial hurdle that will determine the president's ability to govern for the next five years.
Some 61 percent of voters prefer to see a majority of lawmakers opposed to Macron in the new assembly, according to an Elabe poll for BFM TV, although another poll earlier this week showed the president was on course to win an outright majority there.
The cost of living has emerged as voters' number one priority in this year of elections, which coincide with sharp rises in food, energy and petrol prices partly caused by post-pandemic disruptions and by the Ukraine crisis.
(Reuters)
