voters and help her to victory over centrist favorite Emmanuel Macron.
Dupont-Aignan is a nationalist whose
protectionist economic policies are close to those of the National Front's Le
Pen and who, like her, wants to reduce the powers of European Union
institutions.
He scored 4.7 percent of votes in the first
round on April 23, and announced on Friday, as widely expected, that he was
backing her for the decisive May 7 second round.
The alliance could help draw in other voters
from the edges of the mainstream right, but it risks alienating some of the
far-left support she needs if she is to upset the odds and win France's most
important election in decades.
"We will form a government of national
unity that brings together people chosen for their competence and their love of
France," Le Pen told a Paris news conference, sitting side-by-side with
her choice for premier.
The first round elimination of two other main
presidential candidates, the far-left's Jean-Luc Melenchon and conservative
Francois Fillon, was greeted with relief by investors and EU partners of
France, a founder of the bloc, a key member of the NATO defense alliance, and
the world's fifth largest economy.
Le Pen had for months seemed sure of a second
round place, even though the race was closely fought, and polls ahead of round
one showed Macron with a far greater chance than Fillon of beating her next
Sunday.
Melenchon, for his part, offered the prospect
of a second-round choice between two candidates who would tear up international
trade treaties and whose presidencies could be fatal to a European Union
already weakened by Britain's departure.
Macron and Le Pen between them accounted for
only 45 percent of the first round vote, and the battle is now on for the
remainder.
Polls show Macron winning next Sunday with
about 59-60 percent, but the momentum has been with Le Pen, who has clawed back
about five percentage points over the past week.
END OF TRADITIONAL LOYALTIES
The presidential contest has blown apart
traditional party loyalties. Voters now have a stark choice between a resurgent
far right, once a pariah in French politics, and a man whose political movement
is less than a year old and who has never held elected office.
It sets Macron's enthusiasm for the EU and
call for pro-business reforms to boost growth against Le Pen's desire for
France to close its borders to immigrants, unwind EU institutions and restrict
imports to protect jobs.
"The May 7 election is about a European
choice," said outgoing President Francois Hollande, speaking at a meeting
of EU leaders in Brussels.
Macron served as Hollande's economy minister
from 2014 to 2016 before turning his back on the Socialist government to
prepare his own presidential bid.
Dupont-Aignan, who stood in the election for
his party 'Stand up France' said he had signed an agreement on the future
government with Le Pen that took into account some "modifications" of
her program. A copy of an alliance document put on social media by a TV
journalist included no significant policy changes.
Dupont-Aignan is less hardline than Le Pen in
some areas such as reintroduction of the death penalty, and in 2013 he said on
twitter that his party "cannot align ourselves with the extreme
right".
However he is seen as having hardened his
position on immigration since.
The 56 year-old whose power base is in the
suburban and semi-rural Essonne region south of Paris has long been sought by
Le Pen as a potential ally.
His party is an offshoot of the conservative
mainstream right, claiming to represent the pure 'Gaullist' tradition of
post-war president Charles de Gaulle.
Macron, on a campaign trip in central France
where he called politicians who do not back him "morally weak", said
on Saturday the alliance between Dupont-Aignan and Le Pen clarified the choice
on offer to voters.
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