EU Must Reform or Face A Frexit, Says Emmanuel Macron

The 39-year old centrist made the comments as he and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen entered the last week of campaigning ahead of the May 7 runoff, with Ms Le Pen calling her rival "the people's adversary".

Ms Le Pen has promised a referendum on France's membership of the EU and said this weekend that the "euro is dead", although she has toned down calls to swiftly leave the single currency.

Her pledge to reclaim sovereignty from the EU, help French workers and protect French borders has won support in rural and former industrial areas, The Telegraph reported.

Mr Macron, pro-business leader of the recently created En Marche! movement, said: "I'm a pro-European, I defended constantly during this election the European idea and European policies because I believe it's extremely important for French people and for the place of our country in globalisation."

"But at the same time we have to face the situation, to listen to our people, and to listen to the fact that they are extremely angry today, impatient and the dysfunction of the EU is no more sustainable," he told the BBC.

"So I do consider that my mandate, the day after, will be at the same time to reform in depth the European Union and our European project."

The French would take a "business as usual attitude" as a "betrayal" he warned.

"And I don't want to do so, because the day after, we will have a Frexit or we will have (Ms Le Pen's) Front  National(FN) again."

Both Mr Macron - who is leading in the polls by 20 percentage points - and Ms Le Pen are holding major campaign rallies in the Paris area.

Mr Macron will seek to consolidate his lead with a future-oriented message of optimism to an electorate wracked by unemployment and fears of globalisation in a meeting near La Villette science complex in north-east Paris.

Ms Le Pen is taking her case as "the people's candidate" to the working-class suburb of Villepinte.

Taking to the stage in Villepinte, Ms Le Pen declared: "Emmanuel Macron is François Hollande who wants to remain (in power). We are going to throw out this outgoing candidate."

She laid into Mr Macron, an ex-investment banker and economy minister, reminding the French of Mr Hollande's campaign speech in which he accused "the world of finance" of being the main enemy of the French people.

"Today," she told a crowd of several thousand, "the adversary of of the French people is still the world of finance, but this time it has a name, it has a face, it has a party, it is fielding its candidate who could be elected. He is called Emmanuel Macron".

While a string of high-profile figures have come out in support of Mr Macron in recent days - from Zinedine Zidane, the footballer, to Thomas Enders, head of Airbus - the far-Right candidate received a boost over the weekend when Eurosceptic 'sovereignist' Nicolas Dupont-Aignan threw his weight behind her.

Mr Dupont-Aignan scored just under five per cent in the first round, when he received the backing of ex-UKIP leader Nigel Farage.

Opening the Villepinte rally, he accused the "immature and agitated" Mr Macron of wishing to "definitively shut the French inside the prison of the EU".

The rallies come as unions stage a series of marches across the French capital for workers' rights.

However, splits emerged within the major unions over what stance to adopt regarding the presidential candidates. Some factions are going against their leadership to call for members to vote "neither (for Ms Le Pen) nor (for Mr Macron)" - seen by many leftists as an enemy of the worker. A banner of one dissenting faction of the CGT union reportedly read: "Neither plague nor cholera."

Philippe Martinez, CGT leader, said he was in "deep disagreement" with this stance, saying the official union line is "not a single vote for Marine Le Pen."

Meanwhile FN founder Jean-Marie Le Pen led a march from the statue of Joan of Arc, a long-time FN icon.