Emmanuel Macron emerged from the twin wrecks of France's two establishment parties.
The 39-year-old investment banker and former government minister's self-created party "En Marche!" quickly attracted hundreds of thousands of members and surged in the polls.
He promised reform of France's welfare and pensions systems, business-friendly policies, and increased defense spending.
The weakness of the soft-left and soft-right seemed to create the ideal circumstance for a centrist like Macron, who appealed to both Fillon voters and right-leaning Socialists.
The favorite going into Sunday's vote, Macron faced challenges from both his right and left, but Mélenchon's dramatic surge in the last weeks of the campaign came just too late to knock the marchers off course.
The value of the euro jumped Monday after polls that favored Macron in the first round of the vote seemed to be proven correct -- unlike those in the Brexit vote or the US presidential election.
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