France battles to keep Le Pen from power: Panicking President Macron calls crisis meeting to defeat National Rally as socialists urge French leader's supporters to back them and 'do everything to prevent' hard-right election victory on Sunday

The race is on to stop Marine Le Pen’s hard-right National Rally (RN) taking up the reins of government after it trounced its rivals in the first round of voting in the French parliamentary elections.

The hard-left has urged supporters of Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance to back them, while the French president has called on the public to vote for anyone except RN in a so-called ‘Republican front’ to ‘block the far right’.

Mr Macron called a crisis meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris…