PARIS — The French presidential run-off transcended national politics. It was globalisation against nationalism. It was the future versus the past. Open versus closed.

But in his resounding victory on Sunday night, Mr Emmanuel Macron, the centrist who has never held elected office, won because he was the beneficiary of a uniquely French historic and cultural legacy, where many voters wanted change but were appalled at the type of populist anger that had upturned politics in Britain and the United States.

He trounced far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, keeping her well under 40 per cent, even as her aides said before the vote that anything below that figure would be considered a failure.

In the end, Mr Macron, 39, a former investment banker and an uninspired campaigner, won because of luck, an unexpected demonstration of political skill, and the ingrained fears and contempt that a majority of French still feel towards Ms Le Pen and her party, the National Front.

Four months ago he was polling a distant third, an all-but-certain loser whose maverick, non-party movement was considered promising for the future but unripe. The soaring banality of his rhetoric appeared to turn off as many voters as it inspired. His rallies began in enthusiasm but soon sagged under the weight of his speechifying.

But that was before centre-right front-runner Franois Fillon imploded under the weight of an embezzlement scandal, fuelling Mr Macron’s rise in the general election last month and into the final pairing with Ms Le Pen.

“He was very lucky, because he was facing a situation that was completely unexpected,” Mr Marc-Olivier Padis of Paris-based think tank Terra Nova told the BBC.

Many Fillon voters turned reluctantly to Mr Macron on Sunday, rejecting Ms Le Pen, who had made a concerted pitch for voters of Mr Jean-Luc Melenchon, the fourth-place finisher who advocated a similar anti-capitalist platform.

And Mr Macron was lucky to face Ms Le Pen, a candidate considered simply unacceptable by a majority of the French.

But he also played his limited hand with great skill from the beginning, outmanoeuvring his elders.

First, he wisely renounced the man who had given him his break, the deeply unpopular Socialist President Franois Hollande, quitting his post as economy minister in Mr Hollande’s government before it was too late.

Then, he refused to take part in the Socialist Party primary in January, rightly judging that party activists would dominate and choose a far-left candidate on the fringes, who would then be devoured by Mr Melenchon — exactly what happened.

“He was able to foresee there was an opportunity when nobody could,” says Mr Padis.

Mr Macron’s final correct bet was that French voters, like those elsewhere, were disgusted by the mainstream parties, having judged the policy prescriptions of both the establishment right and left as failures in dealing with France’s multiple ills.

He positioned himself in the centre, drawing on left and right, balancing protection of the French welfare state with mild encouragement for business, in an attempt to break through France’s employment and productivity stagnation. AGENCIES