The Latest: Hollande: May 7 vote will gauge EU support
PARIS (AP) - The Latest on France's presidential election (all times local):
12:15 p.m.
French President Francois Hollande says French voters have a choice to make about the future of Europe when they cast their ballots in the second round of the presidential election next weekend.
Speaking in Brussels, Hollande said the May 7 vote will show "whether the French people should fear an exit from the European Union. They have everything to win by staying in the European Union."
Hollande told reporters at a European Union summit Saturday that "it's a risk" should France follow Britain out of the 28-nation bloc if far-right leader Marine Le Pen becomes president.
He said: "We can see with the Brexit affair, there is no more protection, no more guarantees, no more internal market. For a country that is a member of the eurozone, there is no more single currency."
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11:20 a.m.
Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen says her new campaign ally, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, would be her prime minister if she is elected next Sunday as France's president.
Speaking at a news conference Saturday with Dupont-Aignan, Le Pen said they she and the conservative will defend what now becomes their shared program "hand-in-hand."
Dupont-Aignan got nearly 1.7 million votes in the April 23 first-round ballot - 4.7 percent of the total.
Le Pen celebrated his backing as the creation of "a great patriotic and republican alliance."
He said: "It's a historic day because we are putting France's interests before personal or partisan ones."
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10:50 a.m.
French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron is taking selfies with elderly shoppers and shaking hands with asparagus and sausage vendors - and defending the European Union at a campaign stop with rural voters ahead of the May 7 runoff.
On an impromptu tour Saturday of the farmers' market in the central town of Poitiers, Macron listened to a grain farmer complain of low-price competition from other EU countries and a vegetable farmer's laments about the difficulty of getting loans to upgrade farming technology.
As the smell of goat cheeses wafted across dairy stalls, Macron rebuffed criticism of the EU with a vigorous defense of European free trade, saying his rival Marine Le Pen's plans to leave the bloc and its agricultural aid program would spell the end of French farming.
He enjoyed a largely friendly welcome, with shoppers crying "good luck!" and "don't give up!" Just one of the two dozen people he approached, a baker from the nearby town of Usseau, refused to shake his hand.
Macron then set off to visit a farm in Usseau known regionally for its innovative technology.
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10:30 a.m.
The National Front party of far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is rejoicing over the decision by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, a conservative who was eliminated in the first round of voting, to back her campaign.
Florian Philippot, a National Front vice president, told BFM television on Saturday that the new alliance is "excellent news" and "a turning point in this campaign."
Dupont-Aignan got nearly 1.7 million votes in the April 23 first-round ballot - 4.7 percent of the total.
But Dupont-Aignan's switch to Le Pen split his party, "Stand up France," prompting the departure of a vice president, Dominique Jamet.
Jamet told BFM that that Stand up France was losing its "purity" by backing the National Front and that the Le Pen-Dupont-Aignan alliance is "a couple that doesn't please me."
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10:00 a.m.
French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron is hunting for votes in rural areas of France where his far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen, has made inroads among people who feel left behind, with difficult access to public services, mobile phone connections and other modern conveniences.
In a radio interview on Saturday, the centrist Macron said that if elected, his government would intervene directly if mobile operators fail within 18 months to install high-speed fiber optic and phone networks "everywhere."
"I will give them 18 months to finish these deployments, be it fiber optic or 3G/4G," he said. "If at the end of these 18 months, they have not fulfilled their responsibility, the state will substitute itself in their place to do this, within the framework of the investment plan I've decided."