France's Macron says Le Pen's programme will scare international investors

FILE PHOTO: Marine Le Pen, leader of French far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National) party and candidate for the 2022 French presidential election, speaks during a political campaign rally in Perpignan, France, April 7, 2022. REUTERS/Albert Gea

If French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is elected this month, her social programme will drive away international investors, President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with daily Le Parisien.

Le Pen has surged in polls in recent weeks, and is expected to face off in the second round against Macron, a centre-left candidate whose policymaking has drifted to the right, in a repeat of the 2017 election.

"Marine Le Pen's social program is a lie because she

FILE PHOTO: French President and centrist La Republique en Marche (LREM) party candidate for re-election Emmanuel Macron (R) as he takes part in the show "10 Minutes pour Convaincre" (10 Minutes to Convince) on French TV channel TF1 in Boulogne-Billancourt, outside Paris, on April 6, 2022. Ludovic Marin/Pool via REUTERS

does not finance it ... When she says, 'I will increase pensions,' she lies, she will not do it," Macron said.

"Her program will create massive unemployment because it will drive international investors away and it will not hold up budget-wise," he added.

"Her fundamentals have not changed: it is a racist program that aims to divide society and is very brutal."

Macron, whose re-election was thought to be a foregone conclusion even a few weeks ago, is still ahead in the polls for the second-round match-up, but his lead is within the margin of error.

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(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)