French president François Hollande has said a victory by US presidential candidate Donald Trump could shift world politics to the right and that the real estate magnate made people “want to retch”.

A Trump victory in November could also affect France’s presidential election in the spring of 2017, said Hollande, who has not yet announced if he will seek re-election.

“If the Americans choose Trump, that will have consequences, because an American election is a world election,” he said.

“It could lead to a very strong turn to the right in the world, or to a correction ... the American campaign shows issues that will be reflected in the French campaign.”

The Socialist French president will face strong competition from far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen if he chooses to run again next year.

Hollande said Trump’s “excesses” were sickening.

“His excesses make you want to retch, even in the United States, especially when – as was Donald Trump’s case – he speaks ill of a soldier, of the memory of a soldier,” he said, referring to Trump’s highly controversial comments in recent days about captain Humayun Khan, a US Muslim soldier killed in Iraq in 2004.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday called Trump “unfit” to become the US head of state amid a bipartisan outcry following the Republican candidate’s feud with Khan’s parents.

Hollande said he was hearing “hurtful, humiliating comments” during the US election campaign. Speaking about politicians in general, he said “they should be respected when they are respectable.”

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report