French elections

Emmanuel Macron has triggered a political earthquake in French politics.

Despite the palpable relief at the result in Brussels, Macron’s margin victory was in fact uncomfortably small.

EMMANUEL Macron has beaten Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s French election and taken more than 65 per cent of the vote, according to exit polls.

French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has confirmed that French voters have chosen Macron as president.

Some two-thirds of the far-left 'Unsubmissive France' movement plan to abstain from voting or cast a blank ballot in Sunday’s presidential run-off between centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, results showed Tuesday.

Despite the tight margin in the first round, experts believe there are very few scenarios that could put the brakes on Mr Macron's charge to the Élysée Palace

President François Hollande has called on French voters to reject far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and back Emmanuel Macron to succeed him.

Six of the seven countries are former French colonies; Rwanda was colonized by Belgium and was mainly French-speaking before the current Rwandan Patriotic Front took power following the 1994 genocide.

Macron, 39, a former banker, has never held elected office, though he served as economy minister under Prime Minister Manuel Valls.

Before her meeting with Putin, Le Pen spoke to Russia's parliamentary speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin