France’s far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen told a Sunday paper that she expects her party to get enough votes in the May 22 to 25 European elections to form a bloc with other Eurosceptics that can stop the EU’s progress.

The risk of a lurch to the right in May’s European elections is vexing global chief executives, who worry the vote will make the bloc harder to govern just as they want it to reform.

The EU has sought to calm fears in countries such as Britain, France, and Germany that they face a mass influx of Romanians and Bulgarians following the lifting of restrictions, a change that risks fuelling anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe.