Emmanuel Macron, who exit polls say won France's presidential elections on Sunday, may have seen off the competition in the race for the Elysee Palace but will face daunting challenges when he takes office.
The 39-year-old must unite a deeply-divided country, roll back unemployment and try to nudge a fractious EU along the path of reform -- but he first faces a battle to secure a governing majority in legislative elections due next month.
Macron, a pro-European centrist and former banker, takes over a divided country where nearly half of voters backed extremist candidates -- critical of the EU, globalisation and "elites" -- in the first round of the election.
The "two Frances" are divided geographically -- one urban, more affluent and open to reform; the other, concentrated in the northern rustbelt and in disadvantaged areas of the countryside. It was this latter France that voted for Macron's far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen.
Macron knows that many voters backed him not out of conviction but simply to stop Le Pen taking power, and his support could evaporate at the parliamentary elections.
"Will the Macron-Le Pen divide -- which is a national, existential identity divide, not the usual left-right split -- continue into the legislative election? I tend to think so," said analyst Stephane Rozes of the CAP thinktank.
Macron has promised to move beyond traditional left and right parties to create a new majority in the centre.
He launched his En Marche! (On the Move) party less than a year ago but managed to attract hundreds of thousands of supporters. He finished first in the first round of the election with a quarter of the vote. In the runoff against Le Pen, he notched up almost two-thirds of the vote, according to exit polls.
Now he must convert his extraordinary rise -- unprecedented in recent French history -- into a solid presence in the National Assembly.
After his success in the presidential race, Macron believes that the French people will give him another victory in parliamentary elections, which will take place on June 11 and 18.
But the traditional centre-right, whose candidate Francois Fillon crashed out in the first round amid a fake jobs scandal, hopes to strike back and force Macron into a coalition arrangement in parliament.
The far left, emboldened by the first-round success of candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, who took an unexpectedly high 19.6 percent, is also aiming for a strong showing.
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