Votes for National Front will cost jobs - French president

Ben Bassey 11:47 - 19 October 2015

Votes for National Front will cost jobs, French president says

"I prefer to say it, so that there is no surprise, so that everybody understands, don't play with this way of voting just to send a message, just because of unhappiness and anger."

French President Francois Hollande said on Monday that a vote for the far-right National Front in regional elections in December would hurt jobs and investment.

Opinion polls show the National Front (FN) could win two of 13 mainland French regions with policies opposing immigration and the euro currency, including one in the north where its leader Marine le Pen is standing as lead candidate.

"There are consequences. We were talking about attractiveness earlier, for investors, for external trade, jobs and growth, there will be consequences," Hollande said on RTL Radio.

Hollande's Socialists dominate the regions at the moment but polls show former president Nicolas Sarkozy's Les Republicains making sweeping gains and winning control of a majority of them.