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With a major gain, first such performance in four decades, French far-right National Front (FN) topped the race to the European Parliament (EP) more than a week ago with 24.85 percent of the vote, outpacing the conservatives that garnered 20.8 percent and pushed the Socialist Party (PS) to third place with a poor score of 13.98 percent.
Could such an "earthquake win" in European Parliament elections and unprecedented gains in mayoral run-off pave the way for the far-rightists to rule Europe's second largest economy?
After shaking French political landscape, would the National Front vie for 2017 presidential ticket by echoing people's concerns of insecurity and need of protectionism with financial crisis still shadows the national economy?
To French President Francois Hollande, the increasing support to the Eurosceptic was "a distrust of Europe, a distrust of the governing parties, the majority, as the opposition. This vote is a distrust of politics that, after so many years of crisis, call always for efforts without seeing results."
But, to Le Pen, the leader of France's far-right, "the people have spoken loud and clear...
"What else can the president do after such a rejection? It is unacceptable that the National Assembly should be so unrepresentative of the French people."
According to a survey conducted by BVA pollster on May 31, two thirds of French people expressed concerns over the impact of the FN momentum on France's political life. Another study showed 68 percent of respondents have negative opinion on Le Pen.
"It's obvious that the FN has made a great success and is gaining ground. But we shall not conclude that it will be leading next presidential election because French people vote differently when the election concerns their daily life," Eric Bonnet, analyst from BVA told Xinhua.
"I think Marine Le Pen could reach the second round of the runoff but she would not have the majority. We must not forget that the FN score in the European election was a vote to punish Hollande as well as the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP)," he added.
In 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is father of Marie Le Pen and a FN candidate in the race to the Elysee Palace, cruised to the second round after beating Socialist rival Lionel Jospin, prime minister of then president Jacques Chirac at the time, a fact that triggered massive protests against the far-right.
In the second decisive round, Le Pen failed to snatch the first place with a poor score of 17.79 percent against his rival Jacques Chirac who seized a large victory of more than 80 percent.
For the next presidential election scheduled for 2017, Yves-Marie Cann, analyst from CSA estimated the same scenario for the Eurosceptics.
"At this stage, we cannot consider a victory for the National Front in 2017 as a majority vote in two rounds always represent a hurdle for the party which is struggling to exceed the ceiling of 50 percent," Cann said.
"With its actual dynamism and growing distrust towards the Socialists and the conservatives, Marine Le Pen could compete for the title of French president in the second round if she continues building momentum," the analyst added.
With the government weakened by series of policy mishaps of his members and failure to devote on unemployment promise and the main opposition Party UMP hit by corruption scandals, Le Pen stressed the far-right unprecedented performance was a message to others leading political parties that they are challenging for power.
"Clearly we are moving to a new phase, the duopoly of French politics between the UMP and the PS has been broken and we must reckon with a third force," she said.
But, in a sign that FN horizon was not totally rosy, thousands of French youth took the streets to protest the success of Europsceptics chanting "Let's fight the far-right."
