Marine Le Pen’s party has pledged to boost spending power, slash immigration and restore law and order

The far-right National Rally (RN) has strengthened in final polls, including one suggesting it could be on course for a historic parliamentary majority, as candidates fought for votes on the last day of campaigning before the first-round ballot in France’s most momentous election for decades.

Two days before Sunday’s ballot, two polls on Friday showed Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, France-first party pulling steadily further ahead in a race it has led since President Emmanuel Macron called the shock ballot almost three weeks ago after the defeat of his centrists in the European parliamentary election.

With the first round of France’s snap election on Sunday, the president’s allies are desperate to shore up support

Standing in a courtyard framed by the white walls of one of Marseille’s Armenian churches, Sabrina Agresti-Roubache, France’s secretary of state tasked with citizenship, took a deep breath, choosing her words carefully as she addressed a voter who had admitted she was considering switching allegiances to the far right.

Agresti-Roubache, born to a family with Algerian roots, led with the heart, describing how concerns over the snap parliamentary election results had left her elderly mother “in tears” daily. When the tactic proved futile, she changed tack. “When you don’t have power, you can say whatever people want to hear,” said Agresti-Roubache.

National Rally leader says Macron ‘won’t have choice’ but to appoint her protege as PM and he would make decisions on Ukraine support

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Marine Le Pen has said she expects her far-right National Rally (RN) party to win an absolute majority in France’s general election, form a government and take over at least some defence and armed forces decision-making – including on Ukraine.

France’s constitution states that the president is head of the armed forces and chairs France’s national defence committees, but also that the prime minister is “responsible for national defence”, leaving the precise role of the premier open to interpretation.

I’ve watched the rise of Trumpism and the National Rally – and the fake narratives about nationhood they peddle to voters

I was waiting for a friend in a bar when Donald Trump was convicted on all counts by a jury of his peers. Naturally, I bought the bartender a shot to celebrate – and, of course, I mentioned it on social media.

That didn’t make someone I know happy. “It’s a shame that people rejoice when a former president gets convicted. The world is laughing at us, Biden is a clown!” they wrote. “Why do you care what happens here. You live in France. You have no idea what we are going through. Gas prices, food prices, crime, 100,000 people a year dying from fentanyl, inflation. If you dislike our country, renounce your citizenship.”

Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist