The conservative contender in the French presidential election, Valerie Pecresse, is fighting to keep her campaign afloat after a string of defections from her camp to President Emmanuel Macron and criticism from her party's former head Nicolas Sarkozy.
Pecresse, a former minister in Sarkozy's government, has been vying with far-right candidates Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour for second position in opinion polls - a sign that a place in a run-off against Macron, who leads the polls, is not guaranteed.
