After losing the French election, what's next for Marine Le Pen?

- "On the Move" - political movement plans to field candidates for all 577 National Assembly seats. That was when Macron resigned as Hollande's economy minister to embark on his risky presidential run as an independent - a decision received coldly by the French leader at the time.

Meanwhile, a number of worldwide leaders congratulated Macron for winning the French presidency on Sunday.

World leaders from Donald Trump of the U.S.to Angela Merkel of Germany congratulated him on his victory.

The new French president can not afford to fail.

Euro demand was also limited as any major election which results in a change in leadership always creates a certain level of market uncertainty over how the new leader will perform and what changes they may enact, which allowed sterling to push ahead of the single currency by the start of the European session.

Yes, he may have won 66 percent of the votes on Sunday, but remember that one third of French voters could not bring themselves to vote, some 10 million voted for an extremist in Marine Le Pen and just under half of those who backed him were voting to block the far right.

Le Temps carried pictures of joyous Macron supporters on its website and said the election's principal outcome was that France had chosen "a new man to begin its transformation". If he does, he would be able to pick the candidate of his choice to lead the government as prime minister.

Violent protests, anger, egg-throwing and heckling against the president-elect and his defeated, far-right rival Marine Le Pen disrupted their campaigns, which espoused two starkly opposed visions for the country. "I will be at the head of this combat", she said.

Seoul surged 2.3 percent to a fresh record high, the day before a presidential election to find a successor to the impeached Park Geun-hye. "The leaders briefly discussed Brexit and the Prime Minister reiterated that the United Kingdom wants a strong partnership with a secure and prosperous European Union once we leave", a Downing Street spokesperson said.

Macron spoke by phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with whom he hopes to revitalize the Franco-German axis at the heart of the European Union, saying he planned to visit Berlin shortly.

The French voters have spoken loudly and clearly.

Le Pen expressed regret that the French people had voted for "continuity", but she has her sights set firmly on the future - particularly in light of gains that Le Pen dubbed a "historic result" for the National Front.

But in the financial markets, there is a realization that he needs a majority in the legislative elections next month, or at least needs to form a viable coalition, to avoid becoming a lame duck president. The euro zone bank index was down fell 0.7 percent after earlier hitting its highest since November 2015.