Several hundred protesters marched in northern Paris on Sunday to protest against far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, saying basic freedoms would disappear if she were elected to the French presidency.
The top three candidates in France's presidential election have embarked on a final push in Paris to pull in undecided voters and shore up their bases in a contest which has evolved into a too-tight-to-call contest between the far right, far left and centre.
According to pollsters, 48-year-old Le Pen, an anti-EU candidate, is expected to reach the second round but ultimately lose to Emmanuel Macron, 39.
As she spoke, dozens of protesters clashed with police outside the entertainment complex in Paris where her rally was taking place. Her campaign director announced to the crowd of thousands that a party lawmaker had been attacked on his way in, denouncing the masked youth as "extreme-left scum". Mr Collard was unharmed. "That lottery ticket is Marine Le Pen".
Jean-Luc Melenchon, a fiery Communist-backed eurosceptic vowing to return "power to the people" as France's next President, says he has mellowed after years spent giving the establishment a tongue-lashing.
Francoise, the daughter of a former mayor in the eastern province of Franche-Comte, said she would have voted for Fillon "if there hadn't been the scandals".
"We could end up with all the duels possible", said Emmanuel Riviere, director of French polling for Kantar Public. Under the French system, if no presi- dential candidate gains more than half the vote, the top two candidates are pitted against each other in a second round of voting 14 days later.
The situation bespeaks "an undeniable demand for change", he said.
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Melenchon's progress, and the possibility of a showdown between the founder of the "France Unbowed" party and Le Pen, has alarmed investors.
"Mass immigration is not an opportunity for France, it's a tragedy for France", she said, adding that she would immediately impose a moratorium on immigration.
The crowd stood, cheered and chanted, "On est chez nous", or "We are in our land". And conservative Francois Fillon is taking his tough-on-security campaign to Nice, scarred by a deadly truck attack previous year. Her anti-immigration, anti-European, anti-globalization message has resonated with French voters.
However an Opinionway poll reported today that Francois Fillon would beat Marine Le Pen in a run-off vote by 60 percent to 40 percent if the Republican leader made it through to second round.
Organizers of Macron's rally claimed it drew 20,000 people. It appeared not quite full.
"The Conference of Bishops of France sometimes gets involved in what does not concern it: in particular, giving political directions", said Le Pen.
The first round France's of presidential election begins next Sunday, and the comedian echoed the grave sentiments of many political commentators: "It is not an exaggeration to say that, post-Brexit and with a wave of far-right populism sweeping Europe, the fate of the European Union may hang on this election", he warned.
In an Ifop-Fiducial poll for Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD) newspaper 86 percent of FN voters said they "no longer feel at home" in France and 73 percent considered Islam incompatible with the French Republic.
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