Sunday night’s results, meanwhile, show that Ms Le Pen’s years-long effort to transform her party’s image – from a haven for jack-booted thugs under her father to a credible nationalist party of government under her own leadership – are paying dividends. 

Jean-Yves Camus, an expert on European nationalist movements at the Fondation Jean-Jaures, said Ms Le Pen’s 2022 campaign had been light years away from her 2017 performance, when she stumbled badly in a televised debate against Mr Macron. 

She moved beyond her usual talking points of immigration and Islam to present herself as the candidate who best understood how the cost-of-living crisis is affecting ordinary French voters. 

And she successfully fought off competition from a new rival on the hard-Right, Eric Zemmour, who crashed out in the first round of the election on April 10 on seven per cent of the vote. 

“It’s not such a negative record,” said Mr Camus, suggesting that many in Ms Le Pen’s National Rally would want her to stay on. 

It is hard, in any case, to think of a plausible figure who could lead the party to success in her place. 

The heir to Le Pen?

Ms Le Pen’s 32-year-old niece, Marion Marechal, is sometimes mooted as a possible heiress – and it would be in keeping for a party that has been dominated by the Le Pen family dynasty for its entire existence. 

Ms Marechal, however, has had a very public falling out with her aunt, and supported her rival Mr Zemmour for the presidency, even taking on a role as his party’s vice president.

Jordan Bardella, the acting National Rally leader, is another rising star of the hard-Right. He is again intimately connected with the Le Pen clan as the boyfriend of another of Marine’s nieces, Nolwenn Olivier.

But like Ms Marechal, 26-year-old Mr Bardella would make for a young and inexperienced candidate in 2027. “That’s their handicap,” said Mr Camus. “But it could also be a chance to shake the coconut tree, as we say in French” – an expression that means overthrowing the old to make way for the new. 

Whoever leads the National Rally into the future, Mr Camus predicted that Ms Le Pen’s party would continue to wield significant influence as an opposition party – even if the French political system makes it difficult for it to win more than a handful of seats in parliament, let alone the presidency.

And, he added, Ms Le Pen has cemented her position in the French political scene as the candidate of working-class voters who feel forgotten, many of whom previously voted for the Left. 

“I don’t see how the traditional parties could win them back,” he said.