Shops have been boarded up in cities across France as the country braces for possible violence in the aftermath of election results tonight.

In Paris, police warned local businesses along the busy retail strip of rue de Rivoli to secure their windows as anti-fascist protesters are expected to protest sweeping gains for Marine Le Pen’s party.

Polls opened today and results are expected late this evening, with reliable exit polls to be published at 7pm UK time.

Interior minister Gérald Darmanin has mobilised 30,000 police and gendarmes across France, including 5,000 in Paris alone for the runoff vote tonight.

The possibility of a hard-Right government, not seen since World War Two, has had the country on edge throughout the rushed, three-week campaign.

“Everyone is talking about it, the shopkeepers are very worried, they don’t know how they will be protected in the event of violence on Sunday,” Thierry Véron, president of the Federation of Parisian Shopkeepers and Craftsmen Associations (Facap), told Le Figaro.