Mr Charles de Gaulle, grandson of the war-time Free French leader, has been provisionally nominated to stand for the European Parliament in June for the racist National Front.
Mr de Gaulle has told the extremist anti-European party that he is prepared to run as second on the list to Mr Jean-Marie Le Pen or his wife, Jany, if Mr Le Pen is disqualified from holding public office following an electoral brawl.
National Front sources said that Mr de Gaulle's name would "probably" be among candidates named by Mr Le Pen on Monday after party leaders meet this weekend to approve opening European representation to politicians outside the movement. Much of the National Front's executive, including the deputy leader, Mr Bruno Megret, is made up of defectors from the Gaullist movement, whose immigration policies are considered too soft.
Mr de Gaulle (50) is the son of the resistance hero, Admiral Philippe de Gaulle, and is already an MEP for a conservative anti-European party. This month he refused to vote to lift Mr Le Pen's European Parliamentary immunity against prosecution following denigrating remarks about the Holocaust. Since then, the two men have been seen together frequently.