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With Sunday’s elections approaching, the campaign in France has been marred by attacks and verbal abuse against candidates

Posted on by Dsen .N

JUST AS IT HAPPENED

Three days before the second round of France’s parliamentary elections, the campaign was marred by reports of attacks and verbal abuse against candidates, prompting at least one candidate to withdraw from the crucial race. Read our liveblog to see how the day unfolded.

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2 min

An activist sticks up a campaign poster for the candidate of the far-right French party Rassemblement National (RN), Sandrine Chadournec (center), in Libourne, southwestern France, July 2, 2024, as part of the French parliamentary election. © Philippe Lopez / AFP

Summary:

  • French football team captain Kylian Mbappé said on Thursday that “really urgent” for the French to vote in Sunday’s elections, taking into account “catastrophic” results in which the far right achieved unprecedented successes in the first round.

  • Several parliamentary candidates, including French government spokeswoman Prisca Thevenot they said they were attacked during the campaign before the second round of parliamentary elections.

    Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right French National Rally (RN), said on Thursday that The National Rally (RN) party was still able to win an absolute majority in the second round of parliamentary elections this weekend. President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist forces and a broadly leftist coalition withdrew more than 200 candidates from the second round on Sunday to work together to ensure the defeat of the far-right.

  • Government spokeswoman Prisca Thevenot and her team said they were “attacked” Wednesday evening as they put up campaign posters in her constituency. A source close to the matter said Thevenot, who is running for re-election, was not injured, but her assistant was wounded in the arm.
  • Prime Minister Gabriel Attal condemned the attack on Thevenot, saying that “violence and intimidation have no place in our democracy”. The Nanterre prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation into “violence against a public official at a meeting.” Four people, including three minors, were arrested.


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  • President Emmanuel Macron has ruled out forming a coalition government with the radical leftist France Unbowed party, French media reported on Wednesday, claiming the leader told a Cabinet meeting that “there is no way that France Unbowed will join the government”.
  • Some 218 candidates qualified to run in the second round of the French parliamentary elections they stepped aside favor the candidate most likely to win against his opponent in the National Rally. Of those, 130 were on the left and 82 were from Macron’s centrist Ensemble alliance, according to a count by French daily Le Monde.
  • These payments the goal is to block a landslide victory for Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally in Sunday’s second round of parliamentary elections, as she said her party would only head the government if it won an absolute majority.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)

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