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. France’s presidential race remains close enough that we would be uncomfortable trying to pick the ultimate winner – particularly given the upsets seen in last year’s Brexit vote and President Trump’s victory in the US. 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. “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. 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.
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.