France’s mainstream conservative party is seeking an alliance with Marine Le Pen in an unprecedented embrace of the hard-Right.

Emmanuel Macron, the centrist president, called snap parliamentary elections after a humiliating defeat at the hands of National Rally in European elections on Sunday. He has maintained his position is not under threat and said he will not resign.

Eric Ciotti, leader of the Republicans has now signalled his willingness to enter a government with Ms Le Pen, insisting their parties “say the same things” adding that any opposition between them was “imagined”.

“This is what the vast majority of our voters want. They tell us ‘reach a deal,” he added in comments that overturned a decades-old consensus of establishment parties joining forces to shut the hard-Right from power.

An alliance with the Republicans (LR) could help the anti-migrant and Eurosceptic National Rally to a majority in the National Assembly after two rounds of voting on June 30 and July 7.

National Rally, which is expected to win the snap vote, is looking for allies in case it fails to reach an absolute majority, which would mean it could name the prime minister and make Mr Macron a lame duck.

Mrs Le Pen’s party welcomed Mr Ciotti’s offer but it risks destabilising LR, which was in power for large periods of French history.

Philippe Gosselin, a LR MP, said he would quit rather than work with the National Rally.

“It is unthinkable for me [and many LR MPs] that there could be the slightest agreement, the slightest alliance,” Mr Gosselin said.

A LR parliamentary source estimated that only about a sixth of LR lawmakers would accept such a deal.

“What Eric Ciotti is saying is valid only for himself, he must leave the leadership of the Republicans,” Olivier Marleix, who heads the LR group of the lower house of parliament, said.

LR, the heirs of Charles de Gaulle and Jacques Chirac’s parties, are a shadow of their former selves with far fewer Assembly deputies than National Rally.

Senior figures have already deserted the party to join Mr Macron’s centrists, which also gutted support for the centre-Left socialist. Others have joined Ms Le Pen.

Mr Macron’s camp said that Mr Ciotti’s comments were shameful. They were reminiscent of the 1938 Munich Agreement signed by France and Britain with Nazi Germany, said Gérald Darmanin, interior minister, and a former LR member.

National Rally would win 235 to 265 seats in the National Assembly. It is a huge jump from its current 88 but short of the 289 needed for an absolute majority, according to the survey by Toluna Harris Interactive for Challenges, M6 and RTL published Monday.

The same poll has LR with 40-55 seats, so the two combined are not guaranteed to gain an absolute majority.

All French political parties have been rushing to find alliances since Mr Macron called snap elections, which led to a drop in the value of the euro, French stocks and bonds.

Divided Left-wing parties have pledged to work together and nominate joint candidates in the elections, but are yet to strike a formal deal.

Mr Macron has said he is in the election to win it and that calling it  “was the right decision, in the interest of the country”.