The French presidential election is six days away, and many are confident that centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron will beat out far-right candidate Marine LePen.

But news analyst Charlie Sennott has some words of warning for those banking on a Macron win.

“It feels like a time in world history to not try to be too bold in your predictions,” he said on Boston Public Radio Monday. “Just hold on and buckle your seat belt.”

Macron is predicted to take 65 percent of the vote in this second round runoff election, but Sennott said that two factors could lead to a win for LePen: voter turnout and populist anger.

He said many immigrants and children of immigrants live in underfunded suburbs of Paris, and they feel abandoned by both parties in the election.

“There’s talk of them just pulling back-- second, third generation immigrants from Morocco and from Algeria who are just not going to vote,” Sennott said. “That could really tip the balance and make this much closer than people are [saying].”

He also compared the climates of France and the United States. In both countries, anti-immigrant sentiment, partly motivated by local economic stagnation, has strengthened the far-right.

“We ought to pay attention to this strange moment we live in, where populist nationalist sentiment speaks very powerfully to many people in the world,” Sennott said. “Fear of immigrants sells, and the policies of nationalism sell, particularly when the forces of globalism are changing our lives in such profound ways.”

Sennott said he’s reminded of the American presidential election, and a recent trip to Appalachia makes him even more reticent to make a prediction for France.

“In Kentucky and West Virginia, driving through some parts of our country and looking at just how bad it really is, is eye opening,” he said “There are a lot of those faded industrial economies in the UK and France and in the United States, and fear sells.”

Charlie Sennott is a news analyst at WGBH, where he also heads up The GroundTruth Project. To hear his interview in its entirety, click on the audio player above.