The center holds

French voters overwhelmingly rejected far-right nationalist candidate Marine Le Pen in favor of Emmanuel Macron, a centrist and political neophyte, in the country’s closely watched presidential run-off this weekend. Had Le Pen won, the election could have been the deciding blow to the future of the European Union.

Instead, Macron’s victory signals a different future. It suggests the limits to the wave of nationalist politics that’s recently swept the world’s advanced economies.

Many expected France to follow the United Kingdom, with Brexit, or the United States, with Donald Trump, and elect a hard-right nationalist who promised to restore lost glory.

Certainly France has seen better days: its economy is stagnant, its cities have been roiled by a series of terrorist incidents, and its citizens’ angers and fears about migration have been growing.

But French voters turned away from Le Pen’s talk of borders and xenophobia. They agreed to renew their faith in the world economy. Macron, who at 39 will be the youngest president in France’s history, strongly supports the EU. Alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he’ll be a counterweight to pro-nationalist sentiment — and an opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who supported Le Pen.

It won’t be easy. Macron is an untested newcomer leading a new party, Le Pen’s voters remain disaffected and angry, and the challenges facing France are large ones.

But Macron’s victory should be a wake-up call for international leaders. While Brexit and the election of Trump were alarms about the depth of voters’ dissatisfaction with free trade and immigration, they have other concerns, too.

In Macron’s case, the citizens were clearly concerned with the values of the French Republic, and their own desire to face the world with pragmatism rather than fear. Smart politicians — in every country — will find ways to channel this energy into positive policy directions.