Marine Le Pen declares she is the best candidate to face the 'new world' of Trump and Putin and work with a post-Brexit Britain ahead of French election debate

        

Marine Le Pen has declared she is the best candidate to face the 'new world' of US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

The far-right leader also claimed she was better placed than her rival, centrist Emmanuel Macron, to defend France's interests and work with a post-Brexit Britain.

Her comments come as the two presidential candidates prepare to face off in a televised debate today which is expected to be bitter, personal and potentially decisive ahead of voting this weekend.

But about one in four voters in France plan to abstain on Sunday with protesters calling the race for the presidency as 'a choice between the plague and cholera'.

The stakes are high ahead of the TV contest between the pro-European Macron, a 39-year-old former economy minister, and Le Pen, the 48-year-old scion of the National Front party.

Their starkly different views of Europe, immigration, the economy and French identity will be explored for the first time face-to-face following a week marked by bruising clashes between them.

Polls show Macron holding a hefty but narrowing lead in the polls of 59 per cent versus 41 per cent, but previous debates during the rollercoaster French campaign have quickly shifted public opinion.

Yesterday, Le Pen, who rails against 'uncontrolled globalisation', said: 'I think I'm best placed to talk to this new world that's emerging, to talk to the Russia of Putin, to the United States of Trump, to talk to the Britain of (Prime Minister Theresa) May ... to talk to the India of (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi.'

She said that was 'because all of those countries are more or less turning their backs on the ideology of free trade, of competition and of undermining social protection.

'So I feel much more in line with their political philosophy than with (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel's,' she told Reuters, speaking at her campaign headquarters.

Fears that a high abstention rate could help far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in France's presidential runoff strengthened today when two-thirds of far-left supporters said they intend to abstain or cast a blank ballot.

An internal survey of supporters of defeated far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon showed only 35 per cent would back pro-EU centrist Emmanuel Macron, Le Pen's rival and the frontrunner.

The rest will spoil their voting papers or stay at home on Sunday, it said.

Communist-backed Melenchon, who leads the France Insoumise (Unbowed France) movement, scored more than seven million votes and finished fourth in the election's first round on April 23.

Macron still appears on track to become France's youngest president, with a poll on Tuesday giving him a strong lead of 19 points.

But his camp has warned that a high number of no-shows, especially among left-wing voters, could hurt his chances.

And other polls show 22 to 28 per cent of citizens likely to abstain.

While most left-wing voters are turned off by Le Pen's anti-immigration and anti-EU policies, many also find it hard to back Macron's economically liberal approach.

Company bosses, celebrities and scientific researchers have all called for people to rally behind Macron, who styles himself as 'neither of the left nor the right'.