Le Pen will face Emmanuel Macron in the May runoff.
France’s far right National Front sent shock waves through Europe tonight after leader Marine Le Pen made it into the second round of nation’s presidential elections, according to exit polls.
The hard-line anti-immigration candidate stormed into the final ballot to face centrist independent Emmanuel Macron.
Le Pen, 48 came second in the national poll behind Macron with 22 per cent of the vote in the tense election which saw 11 candidates vying for the role, according to Belgian broadcaster RTBF.
Tonight Le Pen and her supporters were celebrating in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont, 120 miles north of Paris.
The far right leader had security authorities on high alert, with rioting expected across the country in protest due to her election success.
More than 50,000 police and gendarmes were deployed to the 66,000 polling stations for Sunday’s election, which comes after Thursday’s deadly attack on the Champs-Elysees in which a police officer and a gunman were slain.
French intelligence have warned of there would be “public disturbances in the case of the presence of parties in the second round that are extremist,” according to Le Parisien newspaper.
Le Pen has vowed to offer French voters a referendum to leave the EU and wants to leave the Euro, known as Frexit.