PARIS: Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned the French left it could “disappear” and populist leader Marine Le Pen get through to a presidential election run-off, calling on his Socialist party to back his government’s business-friendly reform plans.

France’s Socialists are reeling from humiliating losses in local and European elections this year, with the latter seeing the hard-right National Front top a national vote for the first time.

President Francois Hollande has promised to reverse a rise in unemployment to record highs, helped by tax cuts for companies and lower public spending, but this policy shift is being challenged by the left wing of his Socialist party.