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, Reuters reported. 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. "I called for a sense of responsibility. The left could disappear and France could fall apart such has been the succession of crises - economic crisis, crisis of identity, cultural crisis," Valls said. "In the face of this, we have to hold strong and over time," he told news channel iTele after a closed-door party meeting. -- SPA 20:11 LOCAL TIME 17:11 GMT تغريد
