French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has cheered Ford’s decision to shift investment from Mexico to the US, describing the move as a victory for the protectionist policies she champions.

In a New Year’s address to journalists, Le Pen said Ford’s decision is proof that “protectionism works, when it is led by determination, and when a country can exercise its economic independence”.

The Front National (FN) party leader, a top candidate in France’s presidential election next spring, has already suggested that Trump’s victory, along with the Brexit vote, could have a favourable impact on her own campaign.

Le Pen is a self-proclaimed patriot who campaigns against immigration, the European Union and a system of politicians and financial institutions that she claims is hampering France’s progress. “Political will pays,” she said. “The proof is what Donald Trump obtained.”

One of Le Pen’s deputies, Florian Philippot, singled out the French car industry as a proponent of outsourcing and said the “same arguments, the same will, the same tools” used by Trump would be employed in a France run by the FN. He added: “We can imagine an equivalent solution.”

Le Pen was not the only French presidential candidate to lavish praise on Trump for Ford’s decision.

Arnaud Montebourg, a former economics minister seeking the Socialist party candidacy, also proposes protectionist measures to help French industry. “I see that Donald Trump used the Montebourg method!” he joked at a news conference yesterday. “A strong and protecting state is a state which pays attention to the country’s industrial and economic interests … because it’s a power struggle between politics and economy.”

Montebourg advocates state intervention to protect national interests and keep jobs and companies in the country.

As economy minister from 2012 to 2014, he was responsible for a decree broadening the government’s right to intervene when foreign companies want to buy firms the state considers vital, for instance in energy, transport, health and communications.

Montebourg added that he would levy a supertax on banks to raise €5bn (£4bn) if elected president in May and that he was prepared to nationalise a bank too. “The five biggest French banks made a profit of €25bn last year, so I propose a supertax of €5bn,” he said.

Montebourg is among seven hopefuls running for the Socialist candidacy in a two-round primary this month. President Francois Hollande, accepting his personal unpopularity, is not seeking a second term.