France’s conservative Republicans party chairman Eric Ciotti on Tuesday called for a country-wide alliance between his party’s candidates and the far-right National Rally in forthcoming parliamentary elections.

“We say the same things so let’s stop making up imagined opposition”, Mr Ciotti told TF1 television.

Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) is widely expected to emerge as the strongest force after snap elections starting in three weeks, although the party may fall short of an absolute majority.

This means the RN was looking for allies to secure control of parliament, as a decades-old consensus in France’s political establishment to join forces to keep the far right from the gates of power appeared increasingly fragile.