French election 2022: Macron defeats Le Pen to remain president

Emmanuel Macron will be France's president for the next five years after defeating rival politician Marine Le Pen.

In the French Presidential elections, Mr Macron got a greater share of the vote than expected, winning 58.55% of the vote to Le Pen's 41.45%.

He is the first French president to win re-election in 20 years.

In a speech at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, he said he would be a "president for all".

Mr Macron has made promises to get more jobs for people and to invest more money into renewable energy - but some of these are promises he has made before, so people will be watching closely to see if he delivers this time around.

Although she lost, Marine Le Pen got more votes than she did when she faced Macron in the 2017 election.

She claimed this as a victory telling her supporters: "I will never abandon the French people."

Marine Le Pen got a larger share of the vote than in the 2017 election

Lots of people refused to take part

Although he has the largest share of the vote, the result does not mean that Mr Macron has the support of everyone in France.

The way the two-round system works means that the two most popular people from round one face off against each other, but lots of voters seem to not have especially liked either choice.

Many people didn't vote at all and turnout - or the percentage of people who actually voted - was 72%, the lowest in a presidential run-off since 1969.

Three million people also cast blank or spoilt votes - meaning they gave in their voting paper but didn't pick either candidate or wrote something else instead.

Others said they only voted for Macron not because they like or agree with him, but because they saw Ms Le Pen as a worse option and didn't want her to win .

When the result was announced, there were anti-Macron protests in a number of cities, including Paris, Rennes, Toulouse and Nantes.

What did President Emmanuel Macron say?

The President had a big party at the foot of the Eiffel Tower where he told his supporters that now the election was over he would be a "president for all".

He also admitted there was a lot of work to be done .

When people booed Le Pen during the speech he asked them to stop, asking for unity.

He said: "From now on, I'm no longer the candidate of one camp, but the president of all."

What happens now?

The National Assembly (Assemblée nationale) in Paris is where many of France's politicians work

The French people will head to the polls again in June to vote for their version of members of parliament (MPs) - called députés- whose job it is to represent local areas in the National Assembly which is a bit like the House of Commons in the UK.

These elections are important to Macron because if his party, La République En Marche!, doesn't win he would be forced into a "cohabitation" where he shares the job of being in government with other parties.

It would also mean that he could be forced to appoint a prime minister from a different party which would mean making the decisions he wants could be very difficult.