Marine Le Pen said on Tuesday that she intends to "protect the people" of the northern region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, by running in French regional elections this December, reports Deutsche Welle.
"Our region is hit by all the country's problems, even more strongly than the rest of the country," Le Pen told a crowd of 300 supporters in the town of Arras.
Le Pen's National Front (FN) has seen a surge of popularity in the northeast of France, which is burdened by especially high unemployment levels. Previously, the northern mining areas had been a bastion of the left.
While announcing her bid, Le Pen also said the port town of Calais had become "a nightmare" due to the thousands of migrants camped out while trying to smuggle their way to Britain. For the second time in two weeks, strikes interrupted services on the Channel Tunnel from Calais to Dover in England on Tuesday.
The National Front ,which is anti-EU and anti-immigration, is leading the polls ahead of December's local elections. More importantly, a win on the regional level could boost Le Pen's bid for the presidency in 2017.
On Tuesday, Le Pen said she had "hesitated" with her decision to run in the northeast, because of the clash between the regional and the presidential campaign. However, the 46-year old National Front leader decided there was "no time to lose"