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Current polls suggest that Le Pen will come top in round one of the two-stage contest, only to be comfortably beaten by a mainstream Right candidate, whoever that may be, following party primaries held later this month.

“If she does make it to the second round, she will face either a candidate of the Left or the Right,” said Valls at an economic conference in Berlin. “This means that the balance of politics will change completely,” he added, warning of “the danger presented by the extreme Right.”

Given the current climate, he warned, her election was now “possible.” His words echoed those of Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a former centre-Right French prime minister, who warned earlier this week that all predictions of her crashing out were now void.

Le Pen was among the first European politicians to congratulate the Trump on his win and has praised his opposition to free trade, globalization and the “warmongering interventions that are the source of the huge migratory waves that we are enduring”.

Presidential hopefuls from France’s centre-Right yesterday took part in the last of three TV debates ahead of primaries this and the following Sunday.

Republican Alain Juppe, a former prime minister, has been polling to come top ahead of Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, and his ex-prime minister Francois Fillon. But one Ifop poll yesterday put Juppe on 31 per cent in round one, just one percentage point ahead of Sarkozy with Fillon just behind on 27 per cent.