French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has launched her presidential election manifesto with a speech in Lyon which railed against globalisation.
The candidate of the anti-immigration National Front (FN) attacked both “economic and financial globalisation” and “the jihadist globalisation taking root on our territory”.
Her party is promising to offer France a referendum on EU membership.
France goes to the polls on 23 April in one of the most open races in decades.
The incumbent Socialist President, Francois Hollande, is not standing for a second term.
The FN is styling itself as the original anti-establishment party, with its leader hoping to cash in on the “time for change” feeling generated by Donald Trump’s election and the Brexit vote in Britain.
BBC Paris correspondent Lucy Williamson says the party, which has never won more than a third of the popular vote, has been trying to soften its image recently, in order to broaden its appeal.
Opinion polls suggest she will win the first round but lose the second.
‘Local revolution’
Arguing that the FN was the party of the French people, Ms Le Pen said she wanted a “free, independent and democratic country”.
Globalisation, she said, meant “manufacturing by slaves for selling to the unemployed” while the FN solution was a “local revolution” guided by “intelligent protectionism and economic patriotism”.
She said the EU was a “failure” which had “kept none of its promises”, and she promised to renegotiate French membership fundamentally, and would call a referendum on leaving if the attempt failed.
Referring to the knife attack at the Louvre this week, she warned of the threat of radical Islam, painting a dark picture of a France under the “yoke of Islamic fundamentalism” where women would be “forbidden to enter cafes or wear skirts”.
France has about five million Muslims – the largest Islamic minority in Western Europe.
Earlier, FN deputy leader Florian Philippot predicted a new appetite for politics inspired by Brexit and Mr Trump.
“People are waking up,” he told the audience in Lyon on Sunday. “They see Brexit, they see Trump and they’re saying to themselves: ‘It’s worth going to vote’.”
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The FN manifesto promises to take back powers from Brussels, reduce immigration, pull France out of the euro currency and protect companies from what it calls “unfair foreign competition”.
It also outlines plans for a two-tier France – with social housing priority given to French citizens; a “pro-birth policy” for French families; and taxes on employers who hire foreign workers.
The independent former banker, Emmanuel Macron, was also in Lyon this weekend, with a radically different vision for France: pro-Europe and pro-free trade.
The former Socialist economy minister set up his own party, En Marche (On The Move) only last year.
With the centre-right candidate, Francois Fillon, battling a financial scandal, Mr Macron’s chances of reaching the 7 May run-off and challenging Ms Le Pen have risen.
Speaking on Saturday, Mr Macron said Ms Le Pen “did not speak in the name of the people”.
He also criticised what he termed nepotism in her party, which was founded by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen.
The Socialist Party recently chose radical leftist Benoit Hamon as its candidate. He is currently trailing the other three candidates by a few percentage points in opinion polls.
Image copyrightREUTERS
The hard left’s candidate, Jean-Luc Melenchon, is given about 10% in the same polls.
Speaking in Lyon on Sunday, and appearing as a hologram in Paris simultaneously, he called for redistribution of wealth and spoke against the EU.
Our correspondent says the political mood in France is more unpredictable than it has been for decades, and few are certain of the outcome.
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