“A tragedy could threaten the French,” Lindner said when asked what would happen if a new government racked up more debt.

France goes to the polls on Sunday in the first round of snap legislative elections called by President Emmanuel Macron after his centrist alliance was beaten by the far right in European Parliament elections.

The risk for France was similar to Britain when short-lived prime minister Liz Truss ordered a shock economic programme and “lost credibility with financial markets”, Lindner said at an event hosted by the Ifo economic institute.

Shortly after coming into office, Truss and her government revealed a tax-slashing budget, causing bond yields to soar and sparking panic.

The turmoil put pressure on pension funds and forced the Bank of England to step in to purchase bonds and avoid a financial catastrophe.

Lindner said he did not see a “risk of contagion” to other financial institutions in France in a similar scenario.

The German minister however said he hoped the European Central Bank would not have to take action, adding that this would raise “economic and…  constitutional questions”.

The ECB could be moved to intervene if France’s borrowing costs rose quickly, widening the gap with benchmark German bonds.

The central bank created a crisis-fighting tool in 2022 – the so-called Transmission Protection Instrument – to ease tension on bond markets amid a spike in Italian borrowing costs.

The scheme can be used to “counter unwarranted, disorderly market dynamics” that scramble the ECB’s policy goals, so long as countries commit to fiscal policies that do not put the public finances at risk.

Lindner declined to speculate on the result of the French elections.

The far-right National Rally (RN) leads voter surveys, prompting speculation it may be able to form a government.

Yields on France’s debt have soared since the poll was called — a sign of weakening confidence as investors react to the lavish spending plans from the far left and the RN.