The Latest: EU parliament president endorses Macron

The European Union's head office has thrown its weight behind Emmanuel Macron in the French presidential runoff against Marine Le Pen, arguing it is a choice between the defense of the EU or those seeking its destruction.

The president of the European Jewish Congress has lamented the success of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the first round of the French presidential elections.

Kantor highlighted that the 48-year-old National Front leader recently "made comments against the historic record of the Holocaust which makes her no less dangerous than her Holocaust-denying father who she has tried to hide."

Earlier this month, Le Pen denied that France was responsible for rounding up more than 13,000 Jews at a Paris cycle track to be sent to Nazi death camps during the Holocaust.

Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis says he hopes a victory in the French presidential election for Emmanuel Macron would mark a break in the rise of extremist populist parties in Europe.

Speaking to Spain's Cadena Ser radio, Dastis stressed the need for caution but added that a win for Macron in the second round against Marine Le Pen would be "good news because his project for Europe is the closest to that of the Spanish government."

Dastis said he hoped an eventual victory for Macron, together with recent Dutch election results, will confirm a move away from populist parties but added that European countries "need to get their act together, need to re-examine and constantly improve the European project."

Le Pen, campaigning in a farmers' market in the small town of Rouvroy in northern France, told reporters Macron "runs for presidential election while having no program" on counterterrorism issues.

French police say six officers and three demonstrators have been injured in election night violence in which protesters burned cars, danced around bonfires and dodged riot police.

Protesters waved red flags and sang "No Marine and No Macron!" in anger at the results of Sunday's first-round presidential election.

Some 300 people gathered at a peaceful protest at nearby Place de la Republique, waving red flags and dancing around the flames of a bonfire.

Some sang "Now burn your electoral cards" or "No Marine and No Macron!," referring to centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who topped the first-round vote and advance to the May 7 runoff.

Valls spoke Monday to France-Inter radio, a day after French voters rejected mainstream political parties, shutting them out of the French presidency for the first time in the country's modern history.