Mr Jean-Marie Le Pen, the extreme right-wing leader who will face President Jacques Chirac in the May 5th run-off for France's highest office, has attributed his electoral success to "work, perseverance and the help of God". If elected, his first move would be to withdraw France from "the Europe of Maastricht", Mr Le Pen said, from Lara Marlowe in Paris.
He appealed to the 27.86 per cent of the electorate who abstained in the first round to vote for him, and threatened "the Fifth Republic lead by Monsieur Chirac" with a collapse comparable to that of the former Soviet Union.
Tens of thousands of people poured into the streets across France to protest Mr Le Pen's presence on the ballot. "France is wounded," Mr Chirac said. Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who was beaten by Mr Le Pen on Sunday, made farewell visits to his campaign "workshop" and Socialist Party headquarters.
"If you are united, you will come back faster than you expect," he told party militants, some of who were weeping. Mr Le Pen praised Mr Jospin's morality in accepting defeat and withdrawing from public life, but said Mr Chirac ought to be in handcuffs. As the Socialists' leader, Mr Francois Hollande must now try to salvage something of the political party that ruled France for most of the past two decades. He will lead the Socialists' campaign in the June legislative elections, but in the meantime has asked supporters to vote for Mr Chirac.
"Jacques Chirac is our adversary within the democratic system," Mr Hollande said. "But Jean-Marie Le Pen is a danger to the Republic." Militants from extreme left-wing parties said there will be a "third round" to the presidential poll - in the streets of France. There were skirmishes between riot police and anti-Le Pen demonstrators in the early hours of the morning, and protesters defaced the statue of Joan of Arc next to the Tuileries Gardens. Mr Le Pen uses the statue as the focus of the National Front's annual May 1st march, which will be the biggest event of his campaign to unseat Mr Chirac. Mr Chirac attempted to unite the centre-right around him, summoning the UDF leader, Mr Francois Bayrou, and the DL leader, Mr Alain Madelin, to the Elyséé Palace.
Both men are contenders for the prime minister's job, if the right wins a majority in the National Assembly. Having received 6.94 per cent of the vote in the presidential poll, Mr Bayrou - the most pro-European candidate - is trying to dictate conditions for swinging his support to Mr Chirac.
The President had disappointed him with "hackneyed answers not commensurate with the gravity of the situation", Mr Bayrou said. In February, the former education minister sabotaged efforts to create a "presidential majority", saying he was against single party rule.