French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has launched her presidential election manifesto with a twin attack on globalisation and radical Islam.
National Front president Marine Le Pen. Photo: AFP
The National Front (FN) candidate told supporters in the eastern city of Lyon that globalisation was slowly choking communities to death.
Her party promises to offer France a referendum on European Union membership if a renegotiation of terms fails.
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 said the party, which had never won more than a third of the popular vote, had tried to soften its image to broaden its appeal.
Opinion polls suggest she will win the first round, but lose the second.
Ms Le Pen said the EU was a "failure".
She promised to renegotiate French membership. She 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. "They see Brexit, they see Trump and they're saying to themselves: 'It's worth going to vote'."
Emmanuel Macron gives a speech in Lyon in front of 16,000 for the french Presidential Elections. Photo: AFP
Former banker pro-Europe
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.
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.
Jean-Luc Melenchon, the hard left's candidate, also spoke from Lyon on Sunday, appearing as a hologram in Paris simultaneously.
The candidate being given about 10 percent in opinion polls called for redistribution of wealth and spoke against the EU.