Macron warns of civil war risk before French election

French President Emmanuel Macron has issued a stark warning with a claim that a win for the leading far-right and left-wing parties in the upcoming parliamentary election risked sparking a "civil war" in France.

The far-right National Rally party, or RN, and the left-wing New Popular Front, or NFP, coalition are both leading contenders in the election, which is to elect the 577 members of the National Assembly. The first round of the public vote is on Sunday, and a second round is scheduled for July 7.

During an interview on the podcast "Generation Do It Yourself", Macron pointed out the RN manifesto proposed solutions to address issues such as crime and immigration that relied heavily on what he described as "stigmatization or division", reported Reuters news service.

"I think that the solutions given by the far right are out of the question, because it is categorizing people in terms of their religion or origins and that is why it leads to division and to civil war," he told the podcast.

Macron leveled similar criticism at the extreme left-wing party France Unbowed, or LFI, a member of the NFP coalition.

"But that one as well, there is a civil war behind that because you are solely categorizing people in terms of their religious outlook or the community they belong to, which in a way is a means of justifying isolating them from the broader national community and in this case, you would have a civil war with those who do not share those same values," said Macron.

In response to Macron's remarks about the risk of civil war, RN president Jordan Bardella, told M6 TV: "A president should not say that."

In an interview with France 2 TV, Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of LFI, also criticized Macron's comments, attributing the rise in civil unrest, as seen in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia, to Macron's policies.

Macron's comments were aired hours after the RN unveiled its election manifesto on Monday, which includes measures to restrict immigration and eliminate nationality rights for children born and raised in France by foreign parents, reported The Guardian newspaper.

At the RN manifesto launch in Paris, Bardella declared that the party's main long-term objective was to "put France back on its feet "by enacting what he referred to as "a necessary law against Islamist ideologies".

An Ipsos poll at the weekend indicated that RN and its allies are leading in voter intentions with 35.5 percent of the vote ahead of the first round.

The NFP coalition follows on 29.5 percent, while Macron's centrist Ensemble coalition trails in third place with 19.5 percent.