In the lead-up to Sunday’s intense final round of parliamentary elections, an increasing number of candidates and activists in France have been the target of verbal or physical attacks.
In Meudon, southwest of Paris, government spokeswoman Prisca Thevenot, her deputy and a party activist were hanging up election posters when they were viciously attacked by a group of young people.
Attacks on other political campaigners have occurred all over France, which reflects the fervent political atmosphere with the far-right National Rally (RN) leading the race.
“Attacks with violence startle France before the crucial vote”
It is unclear why Ms. Thevenot and her coworkers were attacked, but Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who denounced “attacks of intolerable cowardice,” accompanied her back to Meudon on Thursday.
Photos taken from an apartment block showed young people swarming around the candidate, Virginie Lanlo, her deputy, and a party activist for the Ensemble alliance, which is led by President Emmanuel Macron.
When Ms. Thevenot and her colleagues confronted the youths for vandalising party posters, “they immediately attacked one of my activists, injuring Virginie,” she told the Le Parisien website. Ms. Lanlo sustained an arm injury, and the activist ended up with a broken jaw after being struck by a scooter and punched. The scooter also broke through the windscreen of the car.
The incident was swiftly denounced by politicians of all stripes, and three teenagers and a man in his 20s were taken into custody by the police.
While RN leader Jordan Bardella declared that “combat record insecurity and repeat offending” would be one of his “big commitments as prime minister,” Mr. Attal urged people to “reject the climate of violence and hatred that’s taking hold.”For Sunday’s vote, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has declared that 30,000 police will be stationed throughout France in an effort to quell any unrest caused by “the ultra-left or ultra-right.”
In an interview with the BBC on Thursday, voters in his northern French constituency expressed their dissatisfaction with the political system and expressed fear that young people would go on the rampage regardless of the outcome.
One of RN’s top priorities is law and order, along with immigration and tax breaks to address the crisis caused by rising living expenses.
Attacks have also been made on RN candidates. While conducting a campaign stop at a market in La Rochette, close to Grenoble in the southeast, Marie Dauchy reported being “violently assaulted.”
Nicolas Conquer, a conservative candidate who sided with RN, claimed that he and a female colleague had been showered with eggs. Additionally, another RN candidate was hospitalised last month after being attacked while distributing pamphlets.
President Macron unexpectedly called a snap election, and Mr. Bardella’s party emerged victorious with 33.2% of the vote in the first round. Now, the party’s goal is to secure an absolute majority in the 577-seat National Assembly.
However, his opponents in politics have resolved to exert every effort to prevent the far right from gaining enough seats to form a government.
Candidates who received more than half of the local vote in their constituency, including 39 RN candidates and their allies, won 76 seats outright in the first round of voting.
In order to give a competitor a better chance of defeating RN, 217 of the third-place candidates withdrew from the race, leaving the remaining 501 seats to be decided by runoff votes. Out of the 217 candidates who withdrew, 130 were affiliated with the left-wing New Popular Front, while 81 were part of the Macron alliance.
The operation to secure “mass withdrawals” has angered Marine Le Pen, who has blamed those who want to “stay in power against the will of the people.”But if voters came out in large numbers, she said she believed there was still a chance to win an absolute majority.
Ifop predicts that RN will win between 210 and 240 seats, falling short of the 289 necessary to form a government. That is less than the 240–270 seats that the first round prediction put it in line to win.However, some minority groups in France are afraid of what RN might do if it gains power.
It seeks to eliminate the automatic right to French citizenship for children of foreign parents, provided those children have lived in France for five years between the ages of eleven and eighteen. Instead, French citizens will be granted “national preference” over immigrants in the job and housing markets.Additionally, dozens of delicate jobs would be off limits to dual citizens.
A Muslim woman in a district where RN received 54% of the vote on Sunday told the BBC that RN was getting stronger with each passing election.
Kylian Mbappé, the captain of France’s national football team, urged voters to “make the right choice” on the eve of their country’s quarterfinal matchup against Portugal at the European Championships in Germany.
He said, “We can’t put the country into the hands of those people,” without naming them, following Sunday’s “catastrophic” first-round results.
[BBC]
