Marine Le Pen seen as Putin's puppet with French voters branding election 'depressing'

Deep in the picturesque rolling countryside of Normandy, the supporters of France’s far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen are hoping for an election shockwave.

Here in Le Pen ’s heartlands, elderly voters like Denis Benoest, 72, and Grognier Huguette, 75, want to oust Emmanuel Macron from the Elysee Palace in Paris, and put in his place a woman viewed as a puppet of Vladimir Putin.

In the village of Saint-Riquier-en-Riviere, a few minutes from where we meet, more than 60% of the local population voted for anti-immigration hardliner Le Pen, 53.