For the first time, a poll shows France's extreme-right National Front leading over the two big mainstream political parties in view of he European Parliament elections in May 2014.
In the poll published in the weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, 24% of those surveyed said they would back the anti-immigrant party, compared with 22% for the centre-right UMP of former President Sarkozy and 19% for the governing Socialist Party.
"For the first time in a poll on voting intentions in an election of a national character, the National Front is clearly ahead," Ifop, the polling institute, said.
The National Front's score was up three percentage points from a previous polling in May.
The boost for the party comes just 10 days before the second round of a by-election in the canton of Brignoles in southern France, in which the National Front candidate gained 40.4 % of votes in the first round.
The National Front has long been a magnet for protest votes, but the popularity of its leader, Marine Le Pen, has increased as she is expanding her appeal to disgruntled Socialist and UMP voters, with tough talk on crime and illegal Roma immigrants. She has also capitalized on French President Francois Hollande’s unpopularity and UMP's deep divisions.
The party, founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen, who has been convicted several times for anti-Semitic remarks, won a record 18 percent of the vote in last year's presidential election.
The latest poll came as Alain Delon, one of France's most celebrated actors, expressed his sympathy for the National Front and said he "approved" of the party's rise.
In an interview with the Swiss paper Le Matin, Delon, who lives in Geneva, said: "For years Le Pen father and daughter have fought, but they've fought somewhat alone. Now, for the first time, they're not alone. The French are with them."
The party's next major political test will be municipal elections in March, in which Le Pen says she wants the party to win control of hundreds of seats in local councils.
But accoding to political observers, other countries could also see extreme-right parties make important gains during the May European elections. In Holland, anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders, who PVV party advocates withdrawing from both the euro and the EU, remains a major force.
Both Wilders and Le Pen have mooted the possibly teaming up to campaign ahead of the elections.
In the UK, the eurosceptic, anti-immigration UK Independence Party, came third in local elections in May.
It is currently polling at 11 percent, ahead of the junior governing party, the Liberal Democrats.
‘’Some hope that the personalization of the politics in the shape of parties putting forward candidates for European Commission president will motivate more people to go to the ballot boxes,’’ writes Euractiv.com, a leading information website on EU affairs.
The main European political parties have not nominated candidates yet but there is increasing talk of Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, a veteran of the EU scene, being the centre-right's candidate.
European Parliament President and German Social-Democrat Martin Schulz is seen as a strong contender for the centre-left.