The rise of Marine Le Pen ’s far-right National Rally to front runner in Sunday’s French election is closely intertwined with the emergence of a powerful conservative media machine backed by billionaire Vincent Bolloré , dubbed the “French Murdoch.”

Since he started building his French media empire eight years ago, the platforms controlled by the Bolloré family through Vivendi SE have reeled in a growing audience by focusing on the far-right issues espoused by Le Pen and her party: crime and immigration. In doing so, they have pulled those concerns into the mainstream, according to academics who have studied the National Rally movement and French media.