Melenchon, who failed to reach the second round by a few hundred thousand votes and had urged his supporters not to vote for Le Pen, said Macron's ``presidential monarchy survives by default and under the constraint of a biased choice.''

In his address, Melenchon exhorted Macron's opponents to vote in June's parliamentary elections to ``choose a different path'' and elect a majority of leftist lawmakers. Melenchon said he would be prepared to lead an opposition government.

``Courage, action, determination, always refusing fatality and resignation,'' Melenchon said.