PARIS Theres a storm brewing over Marine Le Pen s presidential campaign.

For the past two years, the head of the Frances far-right National Front party has been widely expected to finish second in this weekends first round of the French presidential election. That would keep her candidacy alive, but it would make her the underdog in the runoff election on May 7.

This dual role as both a favorite and a loser has greatly informed Le Pens tactics. With her eyes on winning a majority of votes in the runoff, Le Pen has worked hard to appease voters who might be ill at ease with her far-right partys extreme history and positions.

The problem is, nothing has gone as planned.

Le Pen had always hoped for a rematch against former French presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Franois Hollande. But both were eliminated early in the campaign Hollande opted not to run for re-election, Sarkozy didnt make it through the primaries. Instead of a face-off with an establishment candidate, Le Pen now finds herself in a pool of four. This group includes Jean-Luc Mlenchon , a self-proclaimed populist who likens himself to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); Franois Fillon , the conservative candidate whose campaign has been crippled by an embezzlement scandal; and Emmanuel Macron , a banker and former Socialist party member who served as economy minister for two years under Hollande.

The race has shifted dramatically. While it once looked like Le Pen would take as much as one-third of the vote, she now finds herself in second place, just 3 points ahead of the bottom two contenders, according to a HuffPost France poll count.