Emmanuel Macron was elected president of France on Sunday (May 7) with a business-friendly vision of European integration, defeating Marine Le Pen, a far-right nationalist who threatened to take France out of the European Union.

The centrist's emphatic victory was celebrated by his supporters in across the country including Paris, as Le Pen's showed their disappointment at a resounding defeat.

Pollsters' projections gave Macron a winning margin of around 65 percent to 35 - a gap wider than the 20 or so percentage points that pre-election surveys had suggested.

With more than 40 million of France's 47 million registered voters accounted for, official Interior Ministry figures confirmed independent centrist Macron had been elected president with 64.16 percent of valid votes cast so far.