Emmanuel Macron has been accused of deliberately “scaring the French” by evoking the prospect of a civil war if people vote for extremists in upcoming parliamentary elections, reports The Telegraph.
Speaking on a podcast, the French president said that both the hard-Right and hard-Left risked setting religious and ethnic communities against each other if they were given power.
But opposition politicians hit back on Tuesday – just five days before the country votes in the first of two polls to choose a new National Assembly.
Jordan Bardella, president of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (NR) party, said: “The president of the Republic should not say that.”
Referring to the Macron administration, Mr Bardella said: “They are the ones who are scaring the French. I want to restore security for all French people.”
Mr Bardella told the M6 news channel that “millions of French people” currently felt insecure in France, and he would “respond to this demand for authority”.
The NR is currently leading opinion polls and if it wins an absolute majority following two-round elections that start on Sunday, Mr Macron would be forced to appoint Mr Bardella as his prime minister.
In France, such a development is known as “cohabitation”, and would mean that the NR could introduce a legislative programme.