France was braced for potentially violent protests today as the far-right leader Mr Jean-Marie Le Pen headed south to Marseille for a final evening campaign rally before Sunday's presidential election runoff.
In the Mediterranean port city, which has a large Muslim community of mainly North African origin, 1,500 police were on hand to separate friends and foes of the anti-immigrant National Front chief and warned they would crack down hard on trouble.
Mr Le Pen's opponents took heart after at least 1.3 million people took to the streets nation-wide yesterday in a show of determination to stop him becoming president, with upwards of 30,000 in Marseille, where the Front has scored well. Despite police fears, the May Day rallies were virtually trouble-free.
Mr Le Pen, due to speak in Marseille this evening dismissed the protesters in a radio interview: "I listen to the voters, I do not listen to demonstrators. I've never accepted the law of the streets against the law of the ballot box."
With Socialist Prime Minister Mr Lionel Jospin edged into third place and out of the race in a first round of voting on April 21, the stunned French left has rallied behind Mr Jacques Chirac, despite accusing the conservative president of corruption.
"Against the fascist, vote for the crook", ran a popular slogan around the hundreds of demonstrations yesterday.
The president, expected to win a second term by a landslide on Sunday, was also to stage his last major campaign rally this evening, at Villepinte on the northern edge of Paris.
Mr Chirac (69) is trying to convince voters he truly shares their anxieties after more than three decades in high office. He polled less than 20 per cent in the first round, just three points more than Mr Le Pen in a record field of 16 candidates.
While Mr Le Pen, a 73-year-old ex-paratrooper, paints himself as the champion of the little people, beset by worries over crime, unemployment, immigration and France's loss of sovereignty to the European Union and global business.