Protests broke out in the streets of Paris and Lyon against French centrist leader Emmanuel Macron’s re-election as president on Sunday, The Guardian reported. Macron defeated far-right rival Marine Le Pen in the polls.

The riot police sprayed teargas on demonstrators at Place de la Republique square in Paris to break up the crowd, the newspaper reported.

Meanwhile, in Lyon, protestors threw fireworks at a police car.

Macron has become the first French president in the past two decades to have won a second term. However, Sunday’s result has also been the closest that the far-right has ever come to securing power in the European country.

Nearly 72% of the voters cast their ballots, in the lowest turnout in a presidential election since 1969.

Voting was held in two phases, on April 10 and 24. Since polling started, university students have held demonstrations outside of the Sorbonne in Paris expressing their unhappiness with the choice of candidates, Reuters reported.

After winning the elections, Macron had said that the people had made a choice for a humanist and ambitious project for the independence of “our country and our Europe”. He also promised a “renewed method” to govern the country, and said that the new era would not be one of continuity.

Meanwhile, Le Pen said that she accepted the results, but asserted that her vote share of 41.4% still marked a victory. She said that the ideas that her party espoused reached new heights.

The far-right leader said that she was already preparing for legislative elections in June, and added that she felt hopeful.

Also read: Emmanuel Macron wins second term as French president, defeats far-right rival Marine Le Pen