PARIS— Emmanuel Macron was elected president of France Sunday in a victory for a political newcomer who campaigned on promises to reform France’s heavily regulated economy and fight a tide of nationalism sweeping the European Union.
The 39-year-old former investment banker, who won 66.1% of the vote, has vowed to undertake contentious labor reforms in France as part of a push for greater economic convergence among the European Union’s fractious member states.
Marine Le Pen, who ran on a plan to pull the country out of the euro and close its borders to migrants, took 33.9%. The results surpassed pollsters’ predictions that Mr. Macron would win about 60%.
Mr. Macron will become the youngest president in French history at a time when France and the EU, the 60-year political project it helped found, are at a major crossroads.
Nearly a decade of lost economic growth for many EU countries has fueled the rise of Ms. Le Pen and other nationalists across the Continent, emboldened by the British vote to leave the EU, or Brexit, and the election of U.S. President Donald Trump.