France Celebrates Emmanuel Macron’s Win

Right politician Marine Le Pen didn’t wake up to a good week because France has decided they want Emmanuel Macron instead. The independent centrist was voted by French voters and is now the country’s youngest president at 39 years old. The youngest before was French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who took power at age 35.

This is the first time Macron has ever ran for office and the French were thrilled at his victory. Many waved flags outside the Louvre Museum this past Sunday night and yelled, “Macron President!”

As he addressed the crowd of France’s citizens, the European anthem “Ode to Joy” played. He eloquently said two lines that had the crowd roaring. “France has won! Everyone said it was impossible, but they do not know France!”

Macron defeated Le Pen by 66.1% to 33.9%, with 99% of votes counted.

Back in March, Macron had told Time, “My point is to convince the French people that a positive project and a progressive view is more adapted to our challenges.”

“This was very much like a U.S. movement,” Guillaume Liegey, partner at the Paris political strategy group Liegey Muller Pons, said to TIME. “He did what Obama did in 2007. He built a movement outside of the party structure.”