Marine Le Pen, the head of the National Rally, held the first official rally of her presidential campaign yesterday/SAT on the same day as an event by Eric Zemmour, as a new poll put the far-right rivals neck and neck.

“Emmanuel Macron is not only despicable but depressing,” she told some 3,000 people gathered in the Champagne capital of Reims. “There is a link between security and immigration. I will be the president who will give security back to France.”

The rally was Ms Le Pen’s attempt to distinguish herself as a candidate with a less “extremist” view than Mr Zemmour following several high-profile defections from her party to his camp.

Both campaigns have centered on tough anti-immigration, anti-Islam platforms. An Ifop poll released yesterday/SAT showed them each taking 14 per cent of the vote in the first round of April’s presidential elections. Ms Le Pen previously held a slight lead over Mr Zemmour.

The incumbent president, Emmanuel Macron, has yet to officially announce his candidacy but has maintained a strong lead, with around 24 per cent of the vote.

Ms Le Pen, who came in second in the 2017 presidential elections, has worked to distinguish herself in recent weeks from Mr Zemmour by casting the far-right firebrand as a candidate who wasn’t fighting to win the election, but rather to “kill the National Rally” party.

“Zemmour is a polemicist. He doesn’t represent unity and appeasement,” Kenzo, a 17-year-old Le Pen supporter who traveled from the north to attend Saturday’s rally told the Telegraph. “[Ms Le Pen] takes every blow, she’s been here for 20 years and her father has been here for 40.”

Other Le Pen supporters put things more bluntly.

“Zemmour is a real sexist and a fascist,” said 19-year-old Amael.

Mr Zemmour, who has twice been convicted of hate speech, held a rival rally in the northern city of Lille yesterday/SAT afternoon.