Le Pen insists euro exit ‘wouldn’t be chaotic’

French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen attempted to reassure the electorate over her plans to withdrew France from the Eurozone, insisting that it “wouldn’t be chaos” and that she would seek “well-prepared” talks with other EU countries.

"The euro triggered a very serious increase in prices and a very steep drop in purchasing power," Le Pen said in an interview published in Le Parisien newspaper on Sunday. "It is also a serious hindrance to job creation because it triggered a loss in competitiveness for the French economy."

Opinion polls show the eurosceptic National Front (FN) leader qualifying for the April 23 first round of the presidential election but losing the May 7 run-off to centrist Emmanuel Macron.

Leaving the euro is one of the FN's standard-bearing policies, but could prove to be an obstacle in her quest for power. Around 72% of French voters oppose a return to the franc, an Ifop poll published in Le Figaro newspaper showed.

Le Pen has said for months that if elected she would not abruptly withdraw from the euro but instead hold a referendum after six months of negotiation with the rest of the EU on a range of issues including leaving the border-free Schengen agreement and reducing the EU to a loose cooperative of nations.

She specified in her Le Parisien interview that negotiations on the euro would come at the end of those negotiations, after Germany's general election in September.

"It must be done in a rational, well-prepared way," she told Le Parisien, "I don't want chaos. Within the negotiation calendar I want to carry out ... the euro would be the last step because I want to wait for the outcome of elections in Germany in the fall before renegotiating it."