Emmanuel Macron has launched an assault on highly paid bosses as he battles the populist policies of Marine Le Pen, his Hard-Right challenger for the French presidency.

He vowed to seek a pay cap on “astronomic” rewards for chief executives in a bid to woo voters on the left ahead of the second round of the presidential election on April 24.

In a radio interview on Friday, Mr Macron joined criticism of the decision by Vauxhall and Citroen owner Stellantis to pay its chief, Carlos Tavares, more than €19m (£15.7m) last year.

“It’s shocking, it’s excessive,” said the French President, a former investment banker, who called for a limit to be imposed by the European Union.

“We need to have ceilings and governance in our Europe that makes things acceptable, otherwise society, at one point, will explode,” he said. “Without framing them in a range, we should be able to put a cap.” 

Salaries at the level that Mr Tavares received were hard for ordinary people having trouble making ends meet to accept, he said, tapping into one of the main election themes.

“We need to convince our European partners of the need for a reform that frames the remuneration of our executives,” Mr Macron added.

He went further than Ms Le Pen, who also called Mr Tavares’s pay shocking, but ruled out any limits on what bosses earn.