French elections: Macron says Le Pen is capitalising on anger he failed to address

‘The far right lives on fears and resentment’, says Emmanuel Macron ahead of Sunday’s election

Emmanuel Macron has admitted failing to tackle some of the anger felt by voters in France, saying his opponent Marine Le Pen is using it to drive her campaign ahead of Sunday’s vote.

Two days before the pair face each other in the final round of the election, the incumbent said far-right Ms Le Pen was capitalising on the “fears and resentment” of the electorate.

"She has managed to draw on some of what we did not manage to do, on some of the things I did not manage to do. That is, to pacify some of the anger, respond quickly to what voters want and in particular manage to offer the prospect of greater security to the middle and working French classes,” Mr Macron told France Inter radio on Friday.

Although pollsters suggest Mr Macron is likely to win a second term in office, a surprise victory for Ms Le Pen has not been ruled out.

The current leader stands roughly 10 points ahead of his rival, a far cry from the 2017 run-off, when he beat Ms Le Pen by a 32-point margin.

Mr Macron gained 28 per cent of the vote in the first round of the election on 10 April, with Ms Le Pen trailing on 23 per cent, narrowly ahead of the far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon on 22 per cent.

In the past two weeks, Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen have traded blows on the campaign trail, culminating in a heated television debate on Wednesday evening.

An Elabe survey indicated that 59 per cent of viewers thought the current president was the stronger performer in the debate, while 39 per cent considered Ms Le Pen the winner.

Speaking to Europe 1 radio on Friday, Ms Le Pen accused the French president of being arrogant and out of touch with the public.

“He does not like the French,” she said. "His mandate has been a succession of humiliating comments.”

Meanwhile, Mr Macron has recently taken aim at Ms Le Pen’s relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin, calling Russia her “banker” over a loan she took out from a Russian bank in 2014.

The French president also accused the National Rally leader of trying to start a “civil war” over her plan to ban Muslim headscarves in public places.