Far-right leader Marine Le Pen rebuffed Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday and told her six million supporters she will “vote blank” in Sunday’s French presidential election.
Her words came as a crushing blow to the president, who hoped her endorsement would deliver his re-election.
Now the door is open for favourite Francois Hollande to become France’s first Socialist head of state for 17 years.
Miss Le Pen, leader of the National Front (FN), won an unprecedented 17.9 per cent of votes in the first round of the election on April 22.
Mr Sarkozy responded by trying to court the FN vote, focusing on the party’s prime goals including toughening border controls and reducing the number of foreigners settling in France.
He appeared on radio yesterday to say there were “too many immigrants” in France, and that the country “can no longer integrate them”.
But his efforts had no effect on Miss Le Pen. She described both Mr Sarkozy and Mr Hollande as “liars” and said she would put in a blank ballot paper on Sunday.
“I don’t offer support or a mandate to these two candidates,” Miss Le Pen told a May Day rally in Paris.
She said that Mr Sarkozy’s “loyalty” to Right-wing voters was “a mirage”.
She added: “I love my country, I love you too much to send you on a path which I know for a fact represents a false hope, a new deception.
“Those two [Sarkozy and Hollande] are representatives of a political elite who defend their own interests.”
The rally was also addressed by her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, a convicted racist and anti-Semite.
The latest Ifop opinion poll shows Mr Hollande on 55 per cent of the vote, 10 points ahead of Mr Sarkozy.
In London, anti-capitalist protesters marked May Day by moving into Paternoster Square, home to the London Stock Exchange.
About 50 people entered the square with tents and supplies at 7pm.
The site is yards from St Paul’s Cathedral where demonstrators dug in for four-and-a-half months after their first attempt to pitch tents on Paternoster Square was derailed by police.
An Occupy London spokesman said: “This was something we have wanted to do since October 15 and we have finally done it.
“This is a force that will not be stopped.” - Daily Mail