The European Union is already struggling to handle issues raised by Brexit, and is also facing a relentless onslaught by extreme-right movements.

Analysts say the French presidential election has the potential to not only rip a big hole through the political and economic union of European nation states, but to obliterate the bloc altogether. 

Pieter Cleppe from Open Europe, analyses the views of two of the leading candidates in Sunday's election -- Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc ‍Melenchon. “Le Pen has said that she wants to renegotiate everything, that she wants to emasculate the EU. She has been definitely moderating her tone. She used to be unconditionally against everything. Now she is more moderate. Melenchon, the kind of reforms he proposes are something that really don’t go together at all with the EU project of open and free trade.”

Yann-Sven Rittelmeyer, an analyst from the European Policy Centre, considers the situation after the election. He says: “The new French president will first have to get the majority in the legislative chamber in June and it seems to be complicated for Le Pen or Melenchon to get such majority. Then both have promised to organize a referendum, so they have to win this referendum.”

An extreme left-right duel between presidential hopefuls Jean Luc Melenchon, a radical leftist, and Marine Le Pen, the anti-EU Front National leader, could well become a reality. 

Melenchon and Le Pen may be political poles apart, but there is little that separates their anti-EU stance.