France's Le Pen reaches out to far-left voters

Paris - French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is reaching from her far-right base across to the far left, urging voters who chose communist-linked Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first-round vote to support her in the runoff election.

Le Pen issued a video via Twitter on Friday urging Melenchon's voters to "block" her centrist rival Emmanuel Macron, arguing that the former banker and government minister represents the status quo and "arrogant finance".

Le Pen and Melenchon won a combined 40% of the vote in the first round after populist campaigns that tapped into widespread frustration with mainstream politics.

While they hold opposing views on immigration and social issues, Melenchon and Le Pen are both sceptical of the European Union, hostile to free-trade deals and promised to help workers hurt by globalisation.

Melenchon is the only leading candidate from the first round who has not given guidance to his voters for the May 7 runoff.