France's prime minister says that centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron has won the French presidential election.

Bernard Cazeneuve said in a statement minutes after the last polls closed that the vote "testifies to the lucidity of the voters who rejected the deadly project of the extreme right." He said the vote shows an embrace of the European Union.

French polling agencies have projected that Macron has defeated Marine Le Pen 65 percent to 35 percent, with a record number of blank and spoiled ballots.

Macron ran for the presidency under his own independent political party, 'En Marche!', winning out over France's established political parties.

French far-right leader Le Pen says she has called Macron to congratulate him and says the vote confirms her National Front party and its allies as the leader of France's opposition.

Minutes after the first results were released, Le Pen said she would call for a new political force as legislative elections loom in June.

Le Pen received 35 percent of the votes cast for a candidate, according to polling agency projections, compared with 65 percent for Macron.