The human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman today congratulated Emmanuel Macron as on his victory as the next president of France.

In a statement shared on her official Facebook page, Karman expressed her hope that Macron’s win would be an important event for the French people.

“Macron's win is a positive sign for peoples’ yearning for change and to express their will in a civilized way, and an evidence of free peoples’ awareness about dangers of descending into fanaticism, non-coexistence and intolerance, Mrs. Karman said. 

Macron’s win makes him the youngest president in France’s history since the election in 1848 of Napoléon Bonaparte’s nephew, Louis-Napoléon, at the age of 40. 

Macron, 39, beat far-right National Front (FN) candidate Marine Le Pen, 48, in an election that will have widespread repercussions for the future of Europe.

Ms. Le Pen, had vowed to ditch the euro and hold a referendum on France's EU membership, while Mr Macron wants closer cooperation between the bloc's 28 nations.