"We were originally a protest party," she said. "There should be no doubt now that we can be a ruling party." The new name is meant to show the party's new willingness to rally other parties behind it, and drop antagonistic connotations of the old Front, she said. In a concession to the old guard, the party will keep its red-white-and-blue flame logo, she said. The idea of changing the party's name was approved by only a narrow majority of National Front members, with 52 per cent backing it, on Saturday, according to figures provided by the party. They will get to vote again on the new name by post. National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen clenches his fist at the statue of Joan of Arc in Paris last year. Credit:AP

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the 89-year old far-right veteran who founded the party in 1972, called the name change political "suicide" in a recent interview. "The National Front name is associated with an epic and glorious history, which no one should deny," his daughter said. "But you know it is for many French people a psychological barrier." Rebranding the party is also a way for her to signal a clear break from her father's toxic legacy. He had been expelled from the party in 2015 over his repeated comments downplaying the Holocaust but courts ruled that he retained the position of honorary president, in theory entitling him to attend meetings of the party's leadership bodies. But on Sunday the party also voted to strip him of his honorary position, ending his last formal connection with the party.

His banishment marked the end of a bitter power struggle since his daughter took over in 2011. In her speech, Marine Le Pen slammed Macron's On The Move party as the embodiment of globalists cut off from France's roots. "In Macron's France, to be on the move is to be a nomad. Just like migrants and tax evaders," she said. Although she lost last year's election, Marine Le Pen's efforts to clean up the party's image have paid off to some extent. She won a third of the vote in the run-off, almost double her father's best showing in his 40 years at the party's helm. Loading

She watered down her anti-euro stance, which has proved unpopular beyond the party's core fans, after the election, refocusing the party on migration and security as other far-right parties in Europe have done. "Legal and illegal immigration are no longer bearable," she said to rousing applause. Standing unopposed at this weekend's congress, she was re-elected for the third time with 100 per cent of the votes. Her strategy is also showing signs of tempting some in the conservative Republicans party to forge an alliance. "The National Front has evolved, let's look at whether a deal is possible," Thierry Mariani, a former minister in Nicolas Sarkozy's government, told the Journal du Dimanche. That was quickly slapped down by the Republicans' spokeswoman.

However, it remains unclear whether rebranding the party will be enough to change its extremist image among the wider public. In an Ifop poll published on Sunday, 63 per cent of the French said the National Front would present a threat for democracy if it gained power. Reuters, DPA