Macron told ‘people detest you’ as far-right bids to be biggest party in France

Centrists are fighting for their survival in Sunday's poll, amid fears the president's snap election has unleashed chaos

Emmanuel Macron's centrist grouping was fighting for survival this weekend before the first round of France's high-stakes snap election, which could see the far-right National Rally (RN) become the biggest force in parliament.

Macron, who warned last week that France risked civil war" if Marine Le Pen's anti-immigration RN, or the leftwing New Popular Front coalition, came to power, said at the European summit in Brussels that uninhibited racism and antisemitism" had been unleashed in France.