France presidential polls: Marine Le Pen steps aside as FN leader

With 7.5 million votes, Ms Le Pen beat the National Front party’s previous election record on Sunday but failed to pip pro-EU Macron to the first place.

During his address, Mr Hollande claimed the purchasing power of the French people would be directly hit if Ms Le Pen wins the run-off vote on 7 May – with “unprecedented price increases” in stores and thousands of jobs being lost.

The rebranding speaks to an eerie convergence of the far-right and far-left in a country that has booted its mainstream parties from the presidential race for the first time in modern history.

He has endorsed Mr Macron, who served as his economy minister from 2014 to 2016, as his successor.

“That nightmare scenario of Le Pen versus Melenchon is off the table”, said Chris Konstantinos, director of global portfolio management at RiverFront Investment Group in Richmond, Virginia.

Abandoning the National Front is likely a desperate attempt by Le Pen to break with the party’s extremist past, which stands between her and anti-globalist French voters who aren’t xenophobic.

She told France2: “I think that we are approaching the decisive moment”.

Baroin, 51 and a rising star within The Republicans, said in an interview on CNews television; “I will be available to. head the government according to the will of the French people”.

Meanwhile, not one of Le Pen’s political rivals have called on their supporters to vote for Le Pen.

He and Le Pen will take part in a TV debate on May 3.

Le Pen accuses Macron of aspiring to be vice chancellor of Europe, under German Chancellor Angela Merkel, while proudly declaring herself to be the “anti-Merkel”.

Both Macron and Le Pen campaigned as rebels who transcended the left-right divide. The third and forth candidates, Francois Fillon and Jean-Luc Mélenchon were not far behind with 19.94 and 19.64 percent of the votes. Fillon added that he won’t lead his party into June’s parliamentary election in France, saying he had lost his legitimacy as party leader. The oligarchy has already installed Emmanuel Macron in the president’s seat.

But Melenchon has pointedly avoided backing the centrist. Under this banner, he or she must unite all the French.

Le Pen, as The Daily Beast notes, ran an anti-EU campaign, endorsed the Russian annexation of Crimea and was received personally by Putin at the Kremlin last month.

Incumbent President Mr Hollande, who is not re-running for office, has ordered extra 50,000 police forces to ensure security of the 67,000 polling stations across the country.

The new president will be formally confirmed by mid-May.

Macron, her opponent, said, “Some have forgotten that Marine Le Pen is the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen”.

“Some have woken up with a hangover because Le Pen is there”.

Sunday’s first round capped a rollercoaster campaign in a demoralised France, which has been rocked by a series of terror attacks since 2015 and is struggling to shake off a deep economic malaise.