The far-right leader was forced to play down her anti-EU message after her devastating defeat against her pro-EU rival, centrist Emmanuel Macron, in the presidential election.
Mrs Le Pen told the French conservative weekly Valeurs Actuelles: “It is possible to improve French people’s living standards without leaving the European Union and the eurozone.
“We have listened to the French people.”
However, she said that she still planned to push for a “Europe of nations,” to restore – in part – France’s sovereignty, adding that her party would continue to oppose Brussels on several key issues, including the bloc’s border controls.
Mrs Le Pen said: “We’ve come to the conclusion that what we need to do is engage in a tug of war with Brussels, and not break from Brussels.
“One thing we remain strongly opposed to is the border-free Schengen zone, which we still think France should pull out of.”
Mrs Le Pen’s U-turn on her anti-EU stance is hardly a surprise: her crushing defeat to europhile Mr Macron in May’s presidential election – in which the now president won more than 60 per cent of the vote –, showed that an overwhelming majority of French voters are fiercely opposed to her anti-EU agenda
The right-wing chief also commented on her very public feud with her former right-hand man, Florian Philippot, who quit as the FN’s vice president last month to spearhead his new movement, The Patriots.
Mr Philippot threatened to leave the party after Mrs Le Pen hinted that a ‘Frexit’ was no longer a priority, and quit after saying that, despite his former mentor’s promise to deeply transform the FN, the party was taking a “terrifying backwards slide” to its “old demons”.
Mrs Le Pen said: “If Mr Philippot had stayed, an upcoming conference during which we will be discussing our plans to soften our anti-EU stance would have turned into a bloodbath. People were afraid of speaking up because (Mr Philippot) was so anti-EU.”.