Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen will fight for the French presidency after the country's two main parties crashed out of the first round for the first time since the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958.
In a seismic shift in French politics, estimations from partial results put Mr Macron, an independent centrist, top on 24 per cent, with Ms Le Pen, the far-Right Front National leader, just behind on just under 22 per cent.
Conservative François Fillon, dubbed the "Thatcherite" candidate, was heading for elimination on 19.9 per cent, with revolutionary Leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon projected to come fourth.
Mr Macron raced on to stage, hand in hand with his wife, Brigitte. “The French people have expressed themselves,” he said. “It is an honour and a responsibility.”
He then paid tribute to the other candidates, naming them and thanking them for their messages of support after a campaign “marked by terrorism”.
“In a year, we have changed the face of French politics,” he said. “You have succeeded in convincing people that hope for our country is not a dream... In two weeks, I hope I will be your president, the president of the whole of France, the president of the patriots,” - the term Ms Le Pen uses to refer to her supporters.
The Socialist Party's official candidate Benoît Hamon came sixth with a paltry 6.2 per cent of the vote, meaning the two major French parties mustered less than 27 per cent of the vote.
The two finalists offer France two very different visions of Europe and the world, with Mr Macron billing himself as the progressive versus conservatives, and Ms Le Pen as the patriot versus the globalists.
On Europe, he wants to further beef up the euro zone, while Ms Le Pen intends to leave the euro and hold an in-out referendum on EU membership within six months of taking power.
Most of the defeated contenders instantly called on their supporters to vote for Mr Macron, with Mr Fillon warning that Ms Le Pen would lead France "to ruin and European chaos".
"Extremism can only bring misfortune and division to France," he said.
Mr Hamon did likewise, saying: "I make a distinction between a political adversary and an enemy of the Republic."
Mr Mélenchon last night refused to accept the partial results.
There was relief in the markets as the results from the first round came placing pro-EU Mr Macron in the lead, with the euro jumping two per cent on the day, according to CNBC.
From his Paris headquarters, an ecstatic Mr Macron, 39, an ex-investment banker and economy minister, said: "We are clearly turning a page of French political life."
His pole position vindicated his huge bet to leave the government of Socialist president François Hollande a year ago to found his own movement, En Marche! (Onwards!), on a "neither Left nor Right" platform.
Many predicted the bid by a political novice who has never held elected office would burst like a bubble of champagne Socialism.
Polls suggest that he will beat Ms Le Pen in the runoff, taking around 60 per cent of the vote. She had been banking on first place to create enough momentum to upset such predictions.
A new Harris survey saw Macron winning the runoff by 64 percent to 36, and an Ipsos/Sopra Steria poll gave a similar result.
Speaking from her stronghold in Hénin Beaumont, a former mining town in northern France which has an FN mayor, Ms Le Pen insisted: "The first step that will lead the French to the Elysée has been taken."
"Either we continue on the path of total de-regulation, offshoring, mass immigration, free movement of terrorists, the reign of big money. Or you choose the France of borders that protects your identity," she said.
"It is time to liberate the French people."
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