Le Pen will divide us, president tells voters

France: Hollande warns far right candidate threatens liberty

French president Francois Hollande has urged voters to choose centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron in the May 7 presidential runoff to keep out far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Speaking from the Elysee palace, Mr Hollande said Ms Le Pen’s platform of pulling out of the euro would devastate the country’s economy and threaten French liberty.

He said the far-right would “deeply divide France” at a time when the terror threat requires solidarity and cohesion. Mr Macron was Mr Hollande’s top adviser on economic issues from 2012 to 2014, then economy minister in his socialist government for two years.

In April 2016, he launched his own political movement, En Marche! (In Motion!) to prepare his presidential bid as an independent centrist candidate. He quit the government a few months later.

Mr Hollande's intervention came as France's defeated political mainstream united to urge voters to back Mr Macron.

Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon, whose party holds a majority in the legislature, received just 6% of the first round votes. The mainstream parties were shut out of the presidency after the first round, which narrowed the presidential field from 11 to two. This election is seen as a litmus test for the populist wave which prompted the UK to vote to leave the European Union and led to Donald Trump being elected US president.

The defeated far-left candidate, Jean-Luc Melenchon, pointedly refused to back Mr Macron, and Ms Le Pen’s National Front is hoping to gain the support of voters historically opposed to a party long tainted by racism and antiSemitism.

IN VOTERS’ HANDS: Francois Hollande has urged people to vote for Emmanuel Macron to keep out far-right leader Marine Le Pen

Marine Le Pen