With the first round of the French presidential election set to take place on Sunday, the result will depend on how the French will react to the latest terrorist attack in Paris, in which one policeman was killed and two others were seriously injured.
A senior Eurozone official also said Marine Le Pen as president would be devastating for the bloc - even if the Front National leader failed to actually pull France from the union. Four candidates - Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen, Francois Fillon, and Jean-Luc Melenchon - are within percentage points of one another in the polls, but only two will advance to the run-off in May.
A gunman, who shot three police officers on the Champs-Elysee, killing one, was later claimed by ISIS through its media wing Amaq as an Islamic State "fighter" they dubbed "the Belgian". The Socialist and previous centre-right administrations had "done everything to ensure that we lose" the fight, she said.
It is not the first terror-related incident to mar the French election cycle, and prior attacks in the country - from the 2015 Paris attacks to last year's Bastille Day attack in Nice - are to the forefront of many voter's minds.
While neither has explicitly endorsed a candidate nor shown any signs that they will do so before Sunday's election, both presidents have made public moves that appear to indicate where their support lies.
People on the French security services' watch list for radicalization should also be expelled from France and have their French citizenship taken away, she said.
The attack, claimed by the Islamic State, threw open radically opposing visions and discussions among the Presidential candidates. "We have to be strong and we have to be vigilant, and I have been saying it for a long time".
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Francis always goes past the VIP seats at the end of his audience for a quick round of handshakes. Before the segment, the two discussed a bet they had made for dinner.
Coming shortly before France votes in the first round of its presidential election Sunday, the shooting puts national security, terrorism and immigration at the heart of an already divisive campaign.
But the shake-up in USA politics represented by Trump is seen as encouraging by Le Pen.
Fillon used the arrest of two men Tuesday in Marseille on suspicion of planning an attack on the election as an illustration of the dangers France faces - and the potential weaknesses of his opponents.
With Brexit pending, Brussels needs a strong France to reinvigorate the European Union and make the euro zone stronger and more sustainable. Though the former president said in a statement that he would not make a "formal endorsement", the call was a clear boost to the French candidate.
Now, after two notable defeats for the existing global establishment - in Brexit and Mr Trump's November election - Mr Obama may view Mr Macron as a last, best hope to stem a rising populist tide in the West. Trump said on Twitter.
Forced to choose a prime minister from another party, probably from the center right, Le Pen will have little leverage on domestic policy. The former US president's last intervention in a foreign election campaign, when he backed the pro-EU campaign in Britain's Brexit referendum, didn't go so well: The other side won.
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