AFP GETTY/ REUTERS The EU will be destroyed by a Marine Le Pen government, the French PM has warned

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The Socialist prime minister said the EU would not be able to survive a win by the Front National leader Marine Le Pen. Mr Cazeneuve said a Le Pen government could finish the EU, which has already been weakened by Brexit. Writing in a newspaper column Mr Cazeneuve said the success of the anti-EU candidate would send shockwaves through the crumbling bloc.

The European Union, weakened by Brexit, would not be able to withstand the new shock that would be constituted by the arrival in power in France of a government that is openly europhobic French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve

Mr Cazeneuve, writing in left-wing newspaper Liberation, said: “The European Union, weakened by Brexit, would not be able to withstand the new shock that would be constituted by the arrival in power in France of a government that is openly europhobic.” The prime minister once again took the opportunity to express his support for Ms Le Pen’s rival, Emmanuel Macron in the decisive May 7 vote. President Francois Hollande, the first sitting French president since the war not to stand for re-election, made a similar call after Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen knocked out the official Socialist candidate in the first round.

Liberation said it would publish a 16-page anti Front National special edition on Tuesday. And in Les Echos business newspaper, the heads of various leading French companies have written to warn of the economic dangers represented by Le Pen's anti-EU programme. Ms Le Pen on Saturday said that ditching the euro was not her top economic priority, in a bid to broaden her support amid voters worried over her trademark policy, ahead of the May 7 vote.

GETTY Ms Le Pen has led an open anti-EU campaign

GETTY The latest polls suggest Emmanuel Macron will win the May 7 vote

It comes as riots swept the streets of Paris with one police officer seriously burnt and two others injured in clashes at a May Day demonstration. Protestors threw Molotov cocktails and other missiles as police trued to shake flames from their riot gear near the capital’s Bastille monument. Some trade unionists and left-wing activists sought to make the day one of national solidarity against the Front National, mirroring protests in 2002 when Ms Le Pen's father, party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, was a candidate.

PHOTOTHEK French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve warned a Le Pen government would destroy the EU

Ms Pen tweeted her support for the injured policemen and said the incident was the type of unacceptable behaviour that she no longer wanted to see on the streets of France. The latest polls suggest centrist Mr Macron will win what is widely seen as France's most important election in decades with between 59 and 61 per cent of the vote. At a May Day rally, Mr Macron said: “I will fight up until the very last second not only against her programme but also her idea of what constitutes democracy and the French Republic.” Later he described Ms Le Pen as “the anti-France candidate” and added: “We want Europe to be strong because we want France to be strong.”

Countdown to the French election! Sat, May 6, 2017 Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen continue to campaign as they head towards the election run-off on May 7th Play slideshow REUTERS 1 of 10 Marine Le Pen, French National Front (FN) party candidate for 2017 presidential election, is protected by bodyguards as eggs are thrown by demonstrators during her arrival in Dol-de-Bretagne