France's president warns of complacency over Le Pen

LAVAL: France's leader Francois Hollande warned Tuesday of complacency ahead of the country's second-round presidential runoff, saying the defeat of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen should not be taken for granted.

"I think we need to be extremely serious and mobilised, and to not think it's a done deal because a vote is earned, it's fought for," he told reporters, in an apparent dig at centrist frontrunner Emmanuel Macron.

Macron has been widely criticised in the media and by senior political figures for giving a triumphal speech after he topped the first round of the election on Sunday night, then partied in a chic bistro afterwards.

The 39-year-old, contesting his first-ever election, will face Le Pen in a runoff vote on May 7.

"I don't think there's been recognition of what happened on Sunday," Hollande added, implying that people had failed to grasp the significance of the results.

"We've forgotten that it's still Marine Le Pen who's in the second round. It's not nothing that the far right is in the second round of the presidential election," he added.

Le Pen won 21.4 percent of the vote on Sunday to 23.9 percent for Macron, who is currently projected to defeat her by a margin of about 20 points in the runoff.