Early tallies indicate that centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron has won the French presidential election this Sunday with just under two-thirds of the vote, beating his far-right opponent Marine Le Pen by a large margin. Le Pen has conceded her defeat.

The new French president is resolutely pro-EU and pro-trade, and has centred his campaign on further European integration – and, consequently, a hard bargain for the UK since it has chosen to leave the bloc.

In his acceptance speech, Macron vowed to "restore the link ... between Europe and its citizens". He previously warned that this would require reform of EU institutions.

He advocates economic and budgetary co-ordination between those countries that use the euro and was the only one of 11 initial presidential candidates to support the signature of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada.

Suckler farmers

The final TV debate between Macron and Le Pen illustrated the rift between the two candidates on EU integration. Macron explained that French suckler farmers benefited from the single currency and the single market to buy veterinary medicines made elsewhere in Europe and sell their store cattle for finishing in Italy.

By contrast, Le Pen advocated “clever protectionism” and mentioned farmers among the victims of the “savage globalisation” which she said was the model promoted by her opponent. She had promised to exit the euro and the CAP in favour of a national currency and a “French agricultural policy”. The EU’s largest agricultural producer and the eurozone’s second largest economy leaving those key European projects would have led to their inevitable collapse.

The French election results marks a turn in the nationalistic trend observed in recent votes in the US, the UK and Eastern Europe. However, it remains to be seen whether Macron will win a parliamentary majority in next month’s general election to implement his agenda.

This is the new French president’s first time in running and being elected for office, and he left the government of outgoing president François Hollande last year to start a new centrist movement drawing supporters from many existing parties.

Askeaton infant formula factory

While he ran on a platform focusing on political renewal, 39-year-old Macron is a government insider who was a senior adviser to President Hollande before becoming economy minister for two years. He graduated from the École Nationale d’Administration, where most of France’s political leaders hail from, and had a former career as an investment banker. In that position, he facilitated the sale of Pfizer’s infant formula business to Nestlé for €9bn, including the Askeaton factory in Co Limerick.

His past experience means that despite posing as a newcomer to politics, he is well used to European negotiations he will be joining – most immediately on Brexit. He has signalled his “strict approach to Brexit” and said on a recent visit to the UK that the free movements of goods, capital, services and people were an all-or-nothing package. “I don’t want to accept any caveat or waiver,” he was quoted as saying.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told French radio on Sunday night that Brexit would be the topic of his first meeting with Macron. “The new French president knows this issue, he needs to share his ideas on this,” he said.

Read more

Full coverage: France