PARIS (REUTERS) - French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Tuesday (April 12) said she had no “secret agenda” for France to leave the European Union, even if her attempts to reform the bloc fail.

“There is no secret agenda,” Ms Le Pen told radio France Inter.

Asked if she would leave the EU if all her attempts to reform the bloc fail, Ms Le Pen replied: “Not at all.”

Unlike during her presidential bid in 2017, Ms Le Pen in this year’s campaign has not expressed a will to leave the EU or the euro zone. But her political opponents said that her party’s euro-sceptic core has not changed.

The head of far-right Rassemblement National Party Jordan Bardella, who is Ms Le Pen's ally, meanwhile said on Tuesday that President Emmanuel Macron is "back-paddling" in his offer to soften his planned pension reform to seduce voters but would still execute his plans if re-elected.

Campaigning in France's former industrial heartland, Mr Macron on Monday said he was prepared to readjust his planned pension reform, which is at the core of his programme for re-election.

"I am ready to change the timeline and say we don't necessarily have to do a reform by 2030 if I feel that people are too anxious", Mr Macron said, adding that he was also prepared to "open the door" on pushing the pension age to 64 rather than 65, his current proposal.

"He probably realises that it is a brutal and unheard-of social policy", Mr Bardella told France 2 television, adding that he still believed Mr Macron would go on to push up the retirement age to 65.

Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen traded blows on Monday as they seek to appeal to left-leaning voters who now face the tough decision whether to give their vote to a far-right populist or to a liberal many opponents branded a "president of the rich".