A man walks by election campaign posters of French presidential candidate for the En Marche! movement of Emmanuel Macron, left, and French presidentialcandidate for the far-right Front National party Marine Le Pen with graffiti reading "Neither banker, nor fascist" in Rennes on May 2. (Damien Meyer/AFP/Getty Images)

The last time the National Front was on the verge of power, in 2002, nearly 2 million people took to the streets of France to reject the party of far-right ­extremism.

Those protests took their toll: Jean-Marie Le Pen, the convicted Holocaust denier and co-founder of the National Front, was crushed in the election’s final round, receiving 17.8 percent of the vote that year. In a symbol of political sacrifice, some leftists even wore clothespins over their noses as they voted for Jacques Chirac, France’s conservative ­incumbent.

“Republican Front” is the French term for the bipartisan opposition that has prevented an extremist from winning the presidency. It is what defeated Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2002, but its impact on his daughter’s bid in 2017 has yet to be seen.

[Emmanuel Macron could fight off French populism. But it won’t be with his ideas.]

This year the National Front is again on the cusp of power with a far greater chance of winning the presidency than in 2002. According to polls, Marine Le Pen will win at least 40 percent of the vote in the second and final round — more than double her father’s total 15 years ago. But there have been no notable mass protests this year on anything close to the same scale. Although many politicians and voters remain opposed to the National Front, few can claim to be taken aback by its ascent.

“There was no element of surprise this time,” said Dominique Moïsi, a French political scientist and the author of a well-known book about the role of emotions in political discourse. “In 2002, people were genuinely shocked by the fact that someone like Jean-Marie Le Pen could actually reach power. This time, everybody expected it.”

When Marine Le Pen emerged in second place from the election’s first round with 21 percent of the vote, politicians from both the left and the right immediately backed her opponent, the former investment banker Emmanuel Macron. But in a remarkable break with tradition, others did not.

The most notable example remains that of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the outspoken, witty ex-Trotskyist defeated in the election’s first round but who won 19 percent of the vote. Although he urged his fellow leftists to support Chirac in 2002, Mélenchon has stubbornly refused to endorse Macron in the final round of this year’s vote.

Some on the far right, such as politician Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, have even endorsed Le Pen — much to the chagrin of France’s conservative establishment.

Likewise, a growing number of anti-Le Pen voters have refused to lend their support to Macron, who is widely faulted for labor reforms he drafted as economy minister and is seen by many on the left as too much of a neoliberal.

A poll released late Tuesday indicated that about 65 percent of Mélenchon’s supporters said they would not vote for Macron in the final round. As the gap narrows between Macron and Le Pen, many of the Mélenchon backers appear to lean toward leaving their presidential choice blank or staying home altogether.

[French voters face choice between hope and fear in runoff for presidency]

On Monday in Paris, thousands gathered for the annual International Worker’s Day union demonstrations. The largest of these events — held in Paris’s symbolic Place de la Republique, a vast pedestrian square whose center is a statue of Marianne, the avatar of the French Republic — condemned Le Pen but stopped short of endorsing Macron for Sunday’s final round.

“I’m here because I want to say no to the National Front, but also because I want to say no to Macron,” said Valérie, 53, a Mélenchon supporter and a nurse in a Paris public hospital who declined to give her last name. “Whoever wins, there will be no one who defends the rights of workers.”

“There is no more ‘Republican Front,’ ” said Hamid Djodi, 57, the owner of a cleaning company in Paris. He was standing in the Place de la Republique wearing a mask that had superimposed Marine Le Pen’s hair onto Jean-Marie Le Pen’s face.

“For years, the right and left just divided the Republic with their disputes, and now there is little left. In 2002, we believed it, this idea of a ‘Republican Front.’ But now we don’t believe it anymore — all you have is a capitalist running against a ­fascist.”

Moïsi said that the “failures” of the past three French presidents — Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande — to reconcile French citizens with the political process is one reason that relatively few are protesting this year.

“The political atmosphere has greatly deteriorated since 2002. Suffering and anger have grown so much since that time, and these two emotions explain the fact that no one is in the streets as they were in 2002.”

Valérie, the Mélenchon supporter, said that in 2002 she had voted for Chirac, who was ultimately much more of a traditional conservative than Macron, whose platform has sought to blend economic reforms with social ­liberalism.

“Macron is far too much on the right — just look at his labor reforms,” she said, referring to a slew of changes Macron advocated last year, which he had promised would stimulate a stagnant economy by injecting more competition into the workplace.

“I protested against that, and so I’m protesting against him.”

Despite slight fluctuations in the past week, most still place Macron winning nearly 60 percent of the vote in the second round, with Le Pen taking close to 40 percent.

Even if unsuccessful, Le Pen will probably win a significant percentage of the vote, Djodi said, and the Republican Front will have failed in its mission.

“That family doesn’t change — like father like daughter,” he said, gesturing to his mask.

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