Emmanuel Macron is facing his first internal revolt since his lightning rise to the French presidency after 100 members of his centrist movement announced they were stepping down due to its "arrogant" and "undemocratic" methods.

Mr Macron, 39, swept to victory in May in part thanks to the help of an army of grassroots supporters, many with no prior political experience and who were promised they would all have a say in the way his newly-created movement would be run.

But six months into the presidency, 100 members of his centrist Republic on the Move (LREM) party - from students to elected officials - say they are throwing in the towel, claiming the party as an "affront to the fundamental principles of democracy with an organisational style worthy of the ancien régime [before the revolution of 1789]".

The self-styled "100 democrats" said Mr Macron had enthused citizens who had lost faith with their elites by promising to place them "at the heart of political life and not as background decor".

Instead, they said the party had fallen foul of a Macron personality cult.