She instantly landed blows against Mr Macron who, she said, “performs zigzags day and night” and has “burned the coffers” of the state with his over-generous recovery handouts.

“Unlike him, I give top priority to the values of secularism, to opposing identity politics, and to law and order”, said the head of the Ile-de-France Paris region.

On paper, she is the only candidate with a fighting chance of beating Mr Macron in the runoff. While they have undoubtedly pushed the French political narrative to the Right, far-Right candidates are still considered beyond the pale by the majority.

But to reach the runoff she must perform the delicate balancing act of wresting votes from the incumbent centrist French president and crucially from Ms Le Pen and Mr Zemmour – who has called on LR supporters to cross the rubicon for real change.

“We need to walk on both legs,” said her campaign director Patrick Stefanini. “The Right (with a firm discourse on sovereign issues) and the Left (by speaking to youth and the climate generation but also the working class) serving one vision: to regain French pride.”

Ms Pécresse was due on Saturday to appear with the all top party figures from the centre to hard-Right in Paris in a powerful display of family unity.

But precedent shows that an early bounce in the polls can evaporate. And with 51 per cent of French saying they still don’t know who to vote for, political scientist Bruno Cautrès said the candidate who makes it to the runoff is still “anyone’s guess”.

“Eric Zemmour is facing a pincer movement from Valérie Pécresse and Marine Le Pen, Valérie Pécresse is facing a pincer movement from Emmanuel Macron and Eric Zemmour…And none of these three figures (Pécresse, Le Pen and Zemmour) is assured of reaching the second round,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Macron is sitting pretty and above the fray, clearly intent on profiting from his presidential status until “the last quarter of an hour”, as he put it this week.