France - French far right at the 'gates of power', PM warns - France 24

8.9.14

France - French far right at the 'gates of power', PM warns - France 24: "In France, the extreme right of Marine Le Pen is at the gates of power," Valls said. "And I, as a man of the left, will never be able to resign myself to that because it will be the weakest who will be the first to suffer. And it will also be a terrible, perhaps fatal, blow to Europe."

Although Le Pen is forecast to beat Hollande in the event of a second round run-off between them, polls also suggest that she would lose if facing former president Nicolas Sarkozy or another candidate from the centre right.

A high-profile disagreement over France's economic policy triggered a crisis within the Socialist Party in recent weeks and forced a surprise cabinet re-shuffle. In a possible warning to the left-wing rebels inside his own party, the more centrist Valls said the European left had to change its approach if it wanted to succeed.