PARIS — In France’s most consequential election in recent history, voters on Sunday endorsed centrist former finance minister Emmanuel Macron and far-right firebrand Marine Le Pen — both outsiders but with starkly different visions for the country, preliminary returns indicated.

The result was a full-throated rebuke of France’s traditional mainstream parties and a striking parallel to the forces that led to the election of President Trump. It set France on an uncertain path at a time when populist sentiment is sweeping across Europe — as it did in the United States.

In addition to influencing policies on matters such as immigration and how to combat terrorism, the election could also decide the future of the European Union.

The two candidates will head to a runoff on May 7, according to almost complete results.

With 97 percent of votes counted, the Interior Ministry said Macron had nearly 24 percent, giving him a slight cushion over Le Pen’s 22 percent. The mainstream right candidate, François Fillon, collected just under 20 percent, slightly ahead of the far-left’s Jean-Luc Mélenchon, at 19 percent.

Macron, a former investment banker, abandoned traditional parties a year ago to form his own movement with an eclectic blend of left and right views. He campaigned on a pro-European Union platform, coupled with calls to overhaul the rules governing the French economy.

“The French people have decided to put me ahead of the first round of the vote,’’ Macron told jubilant supporters at a rally in Paris. “I’m aware of the honor and the responsibility that rest on my shoulders.’’

Macron supporters at his Paris election headquarters celebrated, singing ‘‘La Marseillaise’’ and shouting ‘‘Macron, president!’’

Le Pen’s success is a victory for skeptics who oppose the European Union and for those who want to see more “France first’’ policies to restrict signs of Muslim faith in public, including the wearing of headscarves.

“The great debate will finally take place,’’ Le Pen said on Twitter. “French citizens need to seize this historic opportunity.’’

‘‘The time has come to free the French people,’’ she said at her election headquarters in the northern French town of Henin-Beaumont, adding that nothing short of ‘‘the survival of France’’ will be at stake in the presidential runoff.

Her supporters burst into a rendition of the national anthem, chanted ‘‘We will win!’’ and waved French flags and blue flags with ‘‘Marine President’’ on them.

Not only will she be in the runoff for the first time, but she also got a higher percentage of votes than she did in 2012, and a higher percentage than her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, did in 2002, when he made it to the second round as the candidate for the National Front.

She said the outcome was “an act of French pride, that of a people who are raising up their heads, that of a people sure of their values and confident of the future.’’

Few analysts give her much of a chance of winning in the second round, however. Even before official results were announced, the political establishment was rallying behind Macron, warning of the dangers of a victory by Le Pen.

Bernard Cazeneuve, the sitting Socialist prime minister, called Le Pen’s platform “dangerous and sectarian’’ and said it would “impoverish, isolate, and divide’’ the country.

“It will inevitably lead to the end of Europe and of the euro, and, eventually, to France’s relegation,’’ he said.

For now, voters narrowly embraced Macron’s centrist calls for change over more strident appeals from the far left and the far right for France to fortify itself against immigration and globalization.

His success also suggests that despite multiple terrorist attacks in France recently, a message of outreach to immigrants and an acceptance of Muslims as well as of ethnic diversity have some currency.

Le Pen campaigned stridently against Muslim immigration, linking it to security threats, and she may have benefited from a final surge of support after a terrorist attack in Paris on Thursday.

During the campaign, Macron offered a vision of a tolerant and progressive France and a united Europe with open borders. But Le Pen — in an echo of Trump — crafted a ‘‘French-first’’ platform that called for closed borders, tougher security, less immigration, and dropping the shared euro currency to return to the French franc.

In his address to supporters as the returns were still being tabulated, Macron emphasized that he wanted to be the president of all France. But the results showed that the country remains deeply divided.

The fact that four candidates with markedly different views came within a few points of one another in the vote suggested that the fight about what vision of France will dominate the future is far from over.

Mélenchon refused to accept early projections that indicated his defeat. But Fillon conceded, saying that he had failed to “convince’’ the French. “The obstacles put on my path were too numerous, too cruel,’’ he said, obliquely referring to embezzlement scandals that swirled around his campaign.

Socialist presidential candidate Benoit Hamon, who was far behind in Sunday’s results, quickly conceded defeat. Declaring ‘‘the left is not dead,’’ he also urged supporters to back Macron.

In Paris, protesters angry at Le Pen’s advance — some from anarchist and antifascist groups — scuffled with police.

Officers fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. They detained three people as demonstrators burned cars, danced around bonfires, and dodged riot police. At a peaceful protest by around 300 people at the Place de la Republique, some sang ‘‘No Marine and No Macron!’’

After the results were announced, French politicians on the left and right urged voters to block Le Pen’s path to power in the runoff, saying her politics would bring disaster to France.

‘‘Extremism can only bring unhappiness and division to France,’’ Fillon said. ‘‘As such, there is no other choice than to vote against the extreme right.’’

Sunday’s voting took place amid heightened security in the first election under France’s state of emergency, which has been in place since gun-and-bomb attacks in Paris in 2015. About 50,000 officers were deployed to maintain security at polling stations.

On Thursday, a gunman killed a police officer and wounded two others on Paris’ iconic Champs-Élysées boulevard before he was fatally shot.

The absence in the runoff of candidates from either the mainstream left Socialists or the right-wing Republicans party also marked a seismic shift in French politics.

France is now entering unchartered territory, because whoever wins on May 7 cannot count on the backing of France’s political mainstream parties. Both Macron and Le Pen will need legislators in Parliament to pass laws and implement much of their programs.