Far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Sunday sought to mobilize her supporters six days ahead of France’s most unpredictable presidential election in decades by pledging to suspend all immigration and shield voters from “savage globalization.”

Opinion polls have for months shown Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron qualifying on Sunday for the May 7 run-off, but the gap with conservative Francois Fillon and far-leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon has been tightening.

“I will protect you. My first measure as president will be to reinstate France’s borders,” Le Pen said to wide applause and cheers from the crowd of about 5,000, prompting the National Front’s (FN) traditional “This is our home!” chant.

Slamming her rivals, whom she said wanted “savage globalization,” she said hers was the camp of patriots. “The choice on Sunday is simple,” she said. “It is a choice between a France that is rising again and a France that is sinking.”

While no polls have shown Le Pen missing out on the run-off, they are now within the margin of error and any two of the four top candidates have a shot at qualifying. Polls have consistently shown her losing that second round.

With pollsters saying abstentions could hit record highs, convincing voters to go to the polling stations on Sunday is key. Le Pen sought to do so by hitting her party’s trademark anti-EU, anti-immigration themes hard.

“Fight for victory, until the very last minute,” she said. “If every patriot can this week convince just one abstentionist, just one undecided voter, we are sure to win!”

Getting the crowd to boo the European Union and its border-free Schengen area that she would take France out of if elected, Le Pen said: “Mass immigration is not an opportunity for France, it’s a tragedy for France.”

Promising to immediately impose a moratorium on immigration, she said: “The French sometimes have fewer rights than foreigners – even illegal ones.”

Scuffles briefly broke out between 60 to 80 anti-FN protesters and police near the Zenith concert hall in north-east Paris ahead of the rally, a Reuters photographer said.

Police fired teargas at the protesters, some of whom threw chunks of wood. The protesters then left, followed by a small group of police.

During Le Pen’s speech, one young woman jumped on the stage and was immediately carried away by security and a topless woman later shouted out from the middle of the concert hall in an apparent protest against the candidate.

FN lawmaker Gilbert Collard told reporters on arriving at the hall that he was hit in the neck by a beer bottle and that other objects were aimed at him before police intervened. Another FN official, Jean Messiha, said he saw a couple of Molotov cocktails being thrown. Reuters could not verify either comment.

A few hours earlier on the other side of Paris, Le Pen’s most likely run-off opponent, Macron, addressed a crowd nearly four times larger in another concert hall and struck a starkly different, pro-European tone.

But Le Pen’s supporters dismissed her opponent and his ideas.

“Macron is a pure marketing product,” said 26 year-old Veronique Fornilli, an FN youth activist in the Paris region. “Only Le Pen can put France back in order,” she said, also praising the FN leader for her anti-EU, anti-euro stance.

“I want to give France its freedom back, I want to take it out of jail,” Le Pen said of her plans to pull the country out of the euro. </s> Paris (CNN) It has been one of the most unpredictable and dramatic presidential campaigns in French political history -- and with less than a week to go before the election, the outcome remains too close to call.

Only a few weeks ago, it appeared almost guaranteed that the French electorate would vote for a face off between National Front Leader Marine Le Pen and independent candidate Emmanuel Macron.

But as Sunday's first round of voting draws ever closer, the political whirlwind that is far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon appears to be gathering speed.

Will Le Pen ease through? Can Macron persuade voters he's got a plan? Or will the left-wing firebrand Mélenchon cause widespread shock?

Marine Le Pen is expected to make it through to the second round of voting.

Le Pen is intensifying her anti-immigration rhetoric, telling a crowd at the Zenith arena Monday night that her first move as president would be to impose a temporary ban on legal immigration to France.

"I will set up a moratorium on all legal immigration to stop this delirium, this uncontrolled situation," she said.

The National Front leader gave a similar message to supporters Sunday, telling the crowd of about 5,000 people she would "reinstate France's borders."

When she mentioned the European Union, the crowd booed, and she repeated her vow to take France out of the bloc, as well as from the border-free Schengen area.

"Mass immigration is not an opportunity for France, it's a tragedy for France," she told supporters.

"The French sometimes have fewer rights than foreigners -- even illegal ones," she added.

On a night of tension, security personnel were forced to wrestle a protester to the ground after she ran toward Le Pen on the stage.

Outside the venue in northeast Paris Monday night, anti-National Front protesters clashed with police, according to CNN partner BFM-TV.

Le Pen's closest rival, independent centrist Emmanuel Macron, would become the youngest man to lead France since Napoleon if he wins.

The 39-year-old addressed supporters at the Bercy arena in Paris, accusing his opponents of wanting to take the country back to the past.

While his rivals have been embroiled in scandal throughout the campaign, the youthful Macron has so far managed to sidestep the controversy.

But his place in the second round of voting is under threat from far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

There remains a deep skepticism within the French electorate of the establishment, and Macron -- a former economy minister and investment banker -- could be affected by that affiliation.

Macron's lack of experience, lack of party and tender years could go against him.

"I want to take the best of the left wing, of the right wing, and even the best of the center," Macron told supporters.

"Some would like France to become Cuba without the sun or Venezuela without the oil," he said of Mélenchon, referring to the left-wing candidate's mantra.

Mélenchon could yet be the wildcard in an election that has seen twists and turns at every opportunity.

Support for the 65-year-old has surged in recent weeks, following his impressive performances in the presidential television debates.

A charismatic speaker who is popular with younger voters, his easy conversational style has won over supporters.

He's the left's best shot at beating the far-right in the second round -- and he also offers something the French electorate is craving: change.

Republican candidate Fillon is still hanging in there, despite a campaign thrown off track by scandal.

Fillon, 63, is under investigation on multiple counts, including embezzlement of public funds.

The candidate has rejected the claims, saying his wife Penelope, who has also been charged, worked for 15 years as his deputy and handled several roles, including managing his schedule and representing him at cultural events. He also said his daughter and son were employed in similar positions for 15 months and six months respectively, which he said is not illegal, but was an "error of judgment."

While the allegations have harmed his campaign, he remains in the race, albeit with only an outside chance of a top-two finish. </s> Marine Le Pen, French National Front political party leader and candidate for the French 2017 presidential election, attends a campaign rally in Marseille, France, April 19, 2017. — Reuters pic

MARSEILLE, April 20 — French far-right candidate Marine Le Pen yesterday accused her rivals of turning a blind eye to Islamic terrorism at her last major rally before the first round of a nailbiting race for president.

Addressing nearly 5,000 flag-waving supporters in the southern city of Marseille, where two Frenchmen were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of planning an attack on the election, the National Front (FN) leader said: “I have been denouncing this terrible poison of Islamic terrorism since I launched my campaign ... and none of my rivals are willing to debate the subject.

“They wanted to stay quiet about this problem, to suppress it, to keep it at a distance like one sweeps dust under the carpet,” she said.

“The silence of the other candidates comes from shame, the shame of being a member or even having led a government which did nothing to lower the threat and even created the conditions for this scourge to develop,” she told the rally, which was held under tight security.

Police fired teargas and arrested four people after around 500 people demonstrated against Le Pen and tried to march towards the rally.

Some of them threw projectiles and firecrackers.

“Terrorist acts have multiplied throughout Europe during the campaign,” she said. “Here in Marseille two fanatics were arrested before they committed odious crimes.”

Le Pen, 48, has spent years trying to grow support for the FN by campaigning on bread-and-butter issues, but in the final days of the race she has returned to its stock themes of immigration and national identity.

In a BFM television interview yesterday she repeated that she would slash immigration, make it harder to get French nationality and crack down on suspected Islamists.

Polls show Le Pen, 39-year-old centrist Emmanuel Macron, conservative former prime minister Francois Fillon and hard left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon locked in a tight four-way race ahead of Sunday’s first round of voting.

A new survey published yesterday showed Macron leading on 23 per cent to Le Pen’s 22.5 per cent — both of them down slightly.

Fillon had improved to 19.5 per cent while Melenchon had reached 19 per cent, narrowing the gap with the frontrunners.

The top two will advance to a run-off vote on May 7.

Jean-Yves Camus, an academic and expert on the FN, told AFP that Le Pen had returned to the “fundamentals, and particularly immigration” in the final run-in.

“It’s back to basics,” he said.

“The FN top brass has decided to go full throttle for far-right voters.”

Struggling Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon, whom polls place fifth, attempted to turn around his campaign at a rally in Paris.

Hamon urged voters to “wake up, because you alone can avoid a nightmare for France.”

After a string of Islamist-inspired assaults in France, security to the centre of the campaign following the arrests of two men seen in a video pledging allegiance to the Islamic State jihadist group.

A cache of weapons and explosives was found in the apartment of the suspects named as Clement Baur, 23, and Mahiedine Merabet, 29.

Macron yesterday told a rally that he was the only candidate capable “of ensuring the security” of his countrymen and pledged to “track down all those who have attacked our country or are planning to do so and prevent them from doing harm.”

Le Pen has claimed that her proposals such as expelling any foreigner convicted of a crime or suspected of being radicalised would have helped prevent some of the attacks since 2015 which have claimed more than 200 lives.

Left-leaning Le Monde newspaper has dismissed the claim as “absurd” given that most of the attackers were French, many without criminal records.

“You don’t seek votes on the backs of dead people. It’s a sort of moral red line,” the newspaper said.

French voters have so far been more concerned about unemployment and their spending power than terrorism or security, polls show, though analysts warn this would change quickly in the event of bloodshed.

Some analysts have also depicted the French election as a sort of referendum on the European Union, with Le Pen proposing to a referendum on France’s membership of the 28-country club and scrap the euro common currency.

On Tuesday night, she insisted that the TF1 television channel remove the blue-and-yellow European flag from behind her before an interview.

But Melenchon, her eurosceptic hard left opponent, sought to soften his position on Tuesday night, stating that he did not seek to end the European Union or the euro despite criticising the “ultra-liberal” trading bloc for years.

“Don’t believe what they tell you, ‘He wants to leave Europe, the euro’... let’s be serious,” he told supporters.

The Communist-backed candidate has pledged to renegotiate some of the founding treaties of the bloc, however, which would cast serious doubt on the viability of the postwar project of integrating the continent.

Polls show that a majority of French people still support the EU and the euro.

The election has been one of the most unpredictable in decades and takes place against the backdrop of Britain’s shock decision to leave the EU and Donald Trump’s presidential victory in the United States. — AFP </s> Speaking at a rally in Paris, the Front National leader blasted the “irresponsible Schengen Treaty” and promised to restore France’s “Four Sovereignties”. Ms Le Pen told supporters: "I would decide on a moratorium on all legal immigration to stop this frenzy, this uncontrolled situation that is dragging us down.”

She said this would be followed by the introduction of "much more drastic, more reasonable, more humane, more manageable rules" on immigration. She added: “The European Union is imposing double trouble on us: the lack of physical borders with the irresponsible Schengen Treaty.

“We got rid of our physical borders and that turned our countries into train stations for all immigrants around the world. I will end Schengen and restore our national borders. “No other candidate is proposing this, none of them.” With less than a week to go before the first round of voting, Ms Le Pen and her main rival Emmanuel Macron are neck-and-neck in the polls, with Francois Fillon and far-left maverick Jean-Luc Melenchon only a few points behind.

Despite her rally being marred by anti-fascist protesters, Ms Le Pen told her supporters: "The choice on Sunday is simple: It is a choice between a France that is rising again and a France that is sinking.” She added: "Give us France back, for God's sake,” which sparked the 5,000 supporters who had filled the Zenith concert hall in the French capital to chant: “This is our home”.

Ms Le Pen also played on her familiar topics of the party being anti-European Union and anti-immigration. She said: "I will protect you. My first measure as president will be to reinstate France's borders. “Mass immigration is not an opportunity for France, it's a tragedy for France.” </s> Conservative French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has a real chance of winning the election, and it’s leaving liberal citizens distraught. The National Front leader is anti-immigration and anti-EU, and has a list of even more frightening policies. Learn more about her here!

Marine Le Pen, 48, is currently in a close second place in the runoff of the French presidential election, gaining ground on current front-runner Emmanuel Macron, 39. Macron is running without the backing of a political party, making this the first time main left-wing or right-wing parties don’t have a candidate in the second round. In the first round of the election, Macron won 23.8% of votes, while Le Pen took 21.5%. Marine won a stunning 7.6 million votes on April 23, which is the strongest result ever for a Front National candidate.

Marine is the leader of the National Front/Front National, France’s right-wing populist and nationalist political party. The party, founded in 1972, has opposed the European Union since its formation, and is anti-immigration. National Front also promotes zero tolerance toward law and order issues, and is for economic protectionism — restricting trade between countries. Marine became the leader of the party in 2011, succeeding her own father, Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Jean-Marie was extremely controversial, and Marine became popular after softening the party’s image. She turned the National Front into one of France’s largest political parties, the most popular among 18-34 year old citizens, according to a 2016 poll.

Marine Le Pen — See Pics Of The French Presidential Candidate

3. Her campaign platform is extremely conservative

Marine, aligning with the right-wing ideals of the National Front, has a majorly conservative platform for her presidency. She’s campaigned on the “automatic” deportation of illegal immigrants, as well as only allowing 10,000 immigrants into France per year. She wants “extremist” mosques closed, a fixed retirement age at 60, a 35-hour work week, and a “new” EU. Additionally, she wants social housing to go to French nationalists before anyone else.

4. Her partner is the vice president of the National Front

Marine has been in a relationship with the vice president of the National Front, Louis Aliot, 47, since 2009. He was also the head of Le Pen’s presidential campaign in 2012, and served as her spokesperson. She was previously married to Franck Chauffroy, from 1995 to 2000, and married to Eric Lorio, from 2002 to 2006. She has three children from her marriage to Franck — Jehanne, 17, Louis, 18, and Mathilde Chauffroy, 18.

Her father, Jean-Marie, was a radical and extremist political leader. Her family survived a bombing at their home in 1976 as they slept in their beds meant for Jean-Marie. The bomb exploded in the stairwell of their apartment building, blasting a hole in the outside wall. Marine, her sisters Yann and Marie Caroline, and her parents were unharmed.

HollywoodLifers, do you think Marine Le Pen will win the French presidential election? Let us know! </s> Terrorism abroad. Immigrants massacring French citizens at home. Increased anxiety about France’s role in the world. Establishment parties that seem indifferent and corrupt. And a far-right candidate who promises to fix all of it.

It may sound like I’m describing the 2017 French election, but I’m actually talking about 2002.

In the current race, polls are tight, with the far-right populist National Front candidate Marine Le Pen, who has capitalized on concerns about terrorism and immigration, jockeying for first place with former Socialist cabinet minister Emmanuel Macron, while the far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon pulls even with the center-right Republican François Fillon, who has been disgraced by scandal.

France’s presidential elections involve two rounds of voting, with the top two finishers from the first round facing off in a runoff contest a few weeks later. Since none of the candidates is currently polling anywhere near 50 percent of the vote, Macron and Le Pen are both hovering between 22 and 24 percent, a runoff is all but guaranteed.

Polls currently suggest a Le Pen versus Macron matchup in the runoff, but a strong last-minute surge by Mélenchon between now and Sunday could put him in the running instead.

RELATED: John Oliver to France: Don’t screw up your election the same way Britain and America did

In those days, the National Front was widely viewed as a xenophobic fringe party and was headed by its current candidate’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was charged with Holocaust denial numerous times over the course of his political career.

In 2002, however, Le Pen was facing a perfect storm. People were afraid after the 9/11 attacks remade the world overnight and an immigrant massacred eight people in the town of Nanterre, and the leftist vote was split among a number of parties. When the ballots were counted, Le Pen had won second place, narrowly defeating Socialist candidate and incumbent Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

His success, however, was short-lived.

Incumbent Republican President Jacques Chirac declared that Le Pen’s advancement to the second round threatened “the very idea that we have of mankind, his rights and his dignity.” The moderate right and the entire left instantly fell in line behind him. Chirac stopped campaigning, refused to debate Le Pen, and won the runoff with 82 percent of the vote.

So if Marine Le Pen makes it to the second round, what’s to stop the same thing from happening again?

First, today’s National Front is not the National Front of 2002. Since taking over from her father, Marine Le Pen has worked hard to shed the party’s xenophobic image, and even expelled the elder Le Pen from the party.

Second, the French people don’t have an incumbent to fall back on this time, as current president François Hollande isn’t even running. Neither candidate from the major parties, the Republicans and the Socialists, has a chance of reaching the runoff. This means that the only options available are three untested parties that have never held power before. Without a comfortably familiar alternative to the radical National Front, votes might not coalesce as neatly around Le Pen’s runoff opponent as they did in 2002.

RELATED: March 29 is a historic day: Britain officially begins its divorce from the European Union

Third, almost 40 percent of French voters remain undecided, and pollsters say that up to 35 percent may stay home on election day, up from an average of around 20 percent. As one French news site put voters’ feelings, “Le Pen is too extreme… Macron is too young… Fillon cannot be trusted… [flailing socialist candidate] Hamon is the establishment, and… Mélenchon [is] too risky.”

Fourth, while nearly every voter on the French political spectrum in 2002, aside from actual FN members, was closer to Chirac than to Jean-Marie Le Pen, this may not be the case with the alternative to Marine. If the communist-sympathizing Mélenchon makes it to the runoff, it’s likely much of the moderate left will stay home.

Against Macron, Le Pen’s chances of victory are far slimmer. One poll earlier this month suggested that she would lose 61 percent to 39 percent in such a matchup. But the left might not turn out to vote for Macron either, and even 39 percent would be a marked step up from Le Pen’s father’s performance in 2002.

It is likely that Emmanuel Macron will be the next president of France, but if Trump and Brexit have taught us anything, it’s that nothing is ever certain. The stakes here are very high — a victory for the Euroskeptic Le Pen would likely be the final nail in the coffin of the European Union. </s> PARIS — The killing of a policeman by a suspected Islamist militant pushed national security to the top of the French political agenda on Friday, two days before the presidential election.

With the first round of voting in the two-stage election taking place on Sunday, far-right nationalist candidate Marine Le Pen promised tougher immigration and border controls to beat “Islamist terrorism” if elected.

Centrist Emmanuel Macron, who narrowly leads a tight race ahead of Le Pen, said the solutions were not as simple as she suggested, and that there was “no such thing as zero risk.”

Anyone who said otherwise was irresponsible, said Macron, a former economy minister in the government that Le Pen has repeatedly criticized for its security record.

There are four leading candidates in a race that is still too close to call. Sunday’s voting will be followed by a runoff on May 7 between the top two candidates.

The first poll conducted entirely after Thursday’s attack suggested Le Pen had gained some ground on Macron.

While he was still seen winning the first round with 24.5 percent, his score slipped half a percentage point while Le Pen’s rose by one to 23 percent.

Conservative Francois Fillon, a former prime minister, and the far left’s Jean-Luc Melenchon were both down half a percentage point on 19 percent in the Odoxa poll for the newspaper Le Point.

The attack on the Champs-Elysees boulevard in the very heart of the capital added a new source of unpredictability to an election that will decide the management of France’s 2.2 trillion euro economy, which vies with Britain for the rank of fifth-largest in the world.

U.S. President Donald Trump told The Associated Press on Friday he thought the attack will “probably help” Le Pen because she is the candidate who is “strongest on borders, and she’s the strongest on what’s been going on in France.”

Trump told the AP in an interview he was not explicitly endorsing Le Pen but that he believes the attack will affect how French people vote on Sunday.

The outcome could also have a bearing on France’s place in the world and in a European Union still reeling from Britain’s decision to leave. While Macron is ardently pro-EU, Le Pen wants to quit its single currency and potentially hold a referendum on leaving the bloc.

All the candidates are seeking to woo the huge number of undecideds — some 31 percent of those likely to vote, according to an Ipsos poll on Friday.

Fillon also seized on the attack, which was claimed by the militant group Islamic State, saying the fight against “Islamist totalitarianism” should be the priority of the next president. “It’s us or them,” he said.

The Champs-Elysees shooting is the latest in a series of attacks by Islamist militants on France since 2015, in which more than 200 people have been killed. A truck plowed into a Bastille Day crowd in Nice last year, killing more than 80, while coordinated attacks on the Bataclan concert hall and other sites in Paris claimed about 130 lives in November 2015. There have also been attacks on a satirical weekly and a kosher store.

However, previous attacks that have taken place shortly before elections, including the November 2015 attacks in Paris ahead of regional polls, and a shooting in a Jewish school before the 2012 presidential election, did not appear to boost the scores of those espousing tougher national security.

An assault on a soldier in February at Paris’ Louvre museum by a man wielding a machete also had no obvious impact on this year’s opinion polls, which have consistently said that voters see unemployment and the trustworthiness of politicians as bigger issues.

One policeman was shot dead and two others were wounded in Thursday night’s attack.

Investigators are trying to assess whether the gunman had accomplices, anti-terrorism prosecutor Francois Molins told a news conference, adding that the shooter had never shown any signs of radicalization despite a long police history.

After an emergency meeting of security officials, Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said security forces, including elite units, were on alert to back up the 50,000 police earmarked to ensure safety during the election.

“The government is fully mobilized. Nothing must be allowed to impede the fundamental democratic process of our country,” Cazeneuve told reporters. “It falls to us not to give in to fear and intimidation and manipulation, which would play into the hands of the enemy.”

Controls on immigration and national security are cornerstones of Le Pen’s National Front agenda, and on Friday she said she would reinstate border checks and expel foreigners who are on intelligence services’ watch lists.

“I’ve heard Madame Le Pen saying again recently that, with her in charge, certain attacks would have been avoided,” he told RTL Radio. “There’s no such thing as zero risk. Anyone who pretends (otherwise) is both irresponsible and deceitful.”

In an Elabe poll conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, and published on Friday, both Fillon and Melenchon were seen narrowing Macron and Le Pen’s lead.

Should both Macron and Le Pen make it to the second round, he was likely to win the runoff by 65 percent to 35, according to the survey for BFM TV and L’Express magazine.

Fillon, who has slowly clawed back some ground lost after a fake jobs scandal, saw his score in the first round rise half a percentage point to 20 percent.

Melenchon, who would hike taxes on the rich and spend 100 billion euros ($107 billion) of borrowed money on vast housebuilding and renewable energy projects, gained 1.5 points to 19.5 percent as he built further on the momentum he has generated with strong performances in television debates. </s> (PARIS) — Extremism concerns shook France's presidential campaign Tuesday as authorities announced arrests in what they said was a thwarted attack and candidates urged tougher counterterrorism efforts for a country already under a state of emergency.

While national security previously has been a strong theme in the campaign, far-right candidate Marine Le Pen hardened her tone on foreign extremists and border controls in the wake of the arrests that came days before the first round of voting.

Centrist Emmanuel Macron called for national unity and stronger intelligence. Le Pen and Macron are among four leading candidates seen as most likely to progress from Sunday's first round and to reach the May 7 runoff between the top two.

As the government prepared to flood streets with more than 50,000 police and soldiers to safeguard the ballot, Interior Minister Matthias Fekl said police thwarted an imminent "terror attack," arresting two French men in the southern port city of Marseille.

Both are suspected Islamic radicals, according to Paris prosecutor Francois Molins. Police seized guns and explosives from the apartment the men were leaving when they were arrested, Molins said. The explosives found are of a type used in previous attacks in France and Belgium that were inspired by the Islamic State group.

It was unclear whether a campaign event was a potential target for the attack; Molins said investigators have not determined "the day, the targets and the exact circumstances" of the suspects' plans.

Macron's campaign team said authorities earlier provided a photo of the suspects to his security detail.

The presidential election is being watched as a bellwether for global populist sentiment, in large part because of Le Pen's nationalist, anti-immigration positions.

In a written statement Tuesday, Le Pen pointed to "a devastating multiplication of attacks and threats of attacks" in France which she said was the result of "Islamic fundamentalism" that "has expanded exponentially" in the last decade in the country.

"It's time to put back France in order," she said, using one of her campaign's mantras.

Before Tuesday's arrests were announced, Le Pen said on RTL radio that she would expel foreign extremists and draft army reservists to close France's borders as soon as she takes office.

"We cannot fight the terrorism that weighs on our country without controlling our borders," she said.

He called the arrests a reminder that "the terrorist threat remains very high," especially during the election campaign, and reiterated calls for pressure on internet companies to better monitor extremism online.

But he added that "terrorism ... is a challenge that calls upon us more than anything else to come together, because the terrorists wish nothing more than our division."

Macron and conservative candidate Francois Fillon have pledged more robust counterterrorism efforts, but remain committed to Europe's open borders.

"Democracy must not get on its knees in front of the threats and intimidations from terrorists," Fillon said in a written statement. "The campaign must continue until the end."

Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon suggested his three main rivals — Fillon, Le Pen and Macron — could have been potential targets of the two suspects in Marseille. He expressed solidarity with his fellow presidential hopefuls.

"We will never make the gift to criminals to divide in front of them. We are not afraid," Melenchon said during a rally in Dijon.

Melenchon, who leads a far-left alliance that includes the Communist Party, has risen in polls in recent weeks and is now considered as having a chance of reaching the runoff election.

France's fight against homegrown and overseas Islamic extremism has, with jobs and the economy, been one of the main issues for the stumping presidential candidates.

Those on the right have been particularly vocal, seeking to appeal to voters traumatized by IS-inspired attacks that have killed at least 235 people in France since January 2015, by far the largest casualty rate of any Western country.

With the terror threat "higher than ever," Fekl said "everything is being done" to secure the election, the candidates, their election headquarters and rallies.

He said more than 50,000 police, gendarmes and soldiers will be deployed in France and its overseas territories on Sunday and during the decisive May 7 second round. </s> U.S. President Donald Trump elbowed his way into the French presidential elections in the only way he knows how: Twitter. A day after a terror attack in Paris that left one dead and three wounded, Trump took to the social media site to weigh in.

“Another terrorist attack in Paris. The people of France will not take much more of this. Will have a big effect on presidential election!” Trump wrote Friday morning. Trump lathered more praise on the candidate in an interview with Associated Press later Friday, saying she is the “strongest on borders, and she’s the strongest on what’s been going on in France.” (Though he stopped short of endorsing her explicitly.)

There’s a lot riding on the French election. The far-right and anti-EU Marine Le Pen and three other candidates — Francois Fillon, Jean-Luc Melenchon, and Emmanuel Macron — are in a neck and neck race that ends Sunday, when French take to the polls for the first round of voting. Le Pen, who has ridden a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment, has vowed to withdraw France from the European Union and shut its borders to immigrants.

Terrorism has also been a major campaign issue after a spate high-profile and deadly terror attacks in recent years. On Thursday, a gunman wielding an assault rifle with purported links to the Islamic State killed one police officer and wounded three others before being shot dead on Paris’s famous Champs Elysees boulevard. The attack came conspicuously in the middle of a primetime televised debate for the four frontrunners and seven other presidential candidates, spurring speculation the assailant, Karim Cheurfi, was actively trying to sway the election.

The candidates learned about the attack on air, and adjusted their closing remarks accordingly. “Enough of laxism, enough of naivety,” Le Pen said. “The fight against terrorism must be the absolute priority of the next French president.” Le Pen blamed “radical Islam” for the attack in a follow-up statement Friday, the last day candidates are allowed to campaign before Sunday’s vote.

Pollsters warned a last-minute event could impact the tight race, and some French political analysts predicted the latest attack inch up Le Pen’s poll numbers. Her campaign lost steam in recent weeks as centrist, pro-EU Macron gained ground.

Macron’s final debate remarks starkly juxtaposed Le Pen. “They want France to be afraid; they want to disrupt the democratic process; they want the French to yield to unreasonableness and division,” he said. “Our challenge is to protect the French, not to give up who we are, to stay unified and build a future.”

ISIS claimed credit for the attack within hours. Police found a note defending ISIS ideology next to Cheurfi’s body. On Friday, French prosecutors announced Cheurfi had four prior criminal convictions for crimes including attempted murder.

He had spent 15 years in prison and was released in October, 2015. Police said they briefly detained him in February after they received reports he was collecting guns and planning to harm police, but at the time they said they found no links to Islamic extremism.
With polls showing a close race with Emmanuel Macron and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Marine Le Pen of the National Front pledges to temporarily suspend all immigration, "legal and illegal", to France.