France’s National Rally has sought to style itself a defender of women’s rights — partly by attacking its traditional bogeyman: immigration.

France’s National Rally has sought to style itself a defender of women’s rights — partly by attacking its traditional bogeyman: immigration.

Europe’s far-right voters have long been predominantly men, but French women are now bucking that trend ahead of a high-stakes election that could usher in France’s first far-right government in recent history.

Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Rally is tipped to win the most votes in a two-round snap election on June 30 and July 7 that could crush the liberal centrists of President Emmanuel Macron, and women are increasingly driving her party’s surging political fortunes as it seeks to position itself in the mainstream.

On EU election day this month, the National Rally came first with a stunning 31 percent of the French vote, up from 23 percent in the 2019 EU election.

The most eye-catching aspect of this swing to the far right concerned women voters, according to an election-day poll that OpinionWay carried out for the Les Echos newspaper.