After attack on government spokesperson during election campaign, fears of violence in connection with elections in France are growing

CNN
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Concerns about political violence are growing ahead of France’s crucial parliamentary elections after several MPs were attacked during the election campaign this week.

French government spokeswoman Prisca Thevenot and her team were attacked while canvassing on Wednesday evening, the latest in a series of violent incidents involving French lawmakers running in Sunday’s parliamentary elections.

Her team is not the only one. Rassemblement National politician Marie Dauchy, who is running in the south-eastern Savoie constituency, decided to suspend her campaign after she was physically attacked during her campaign event at a market.

In Cherbourg, Nicolas Conquer, a center-right Republican candidate, filed an official complaint after claiming he was attacked by left-wing campaigners on Monday.

Politicians have repeatedly warned that a victory for the far right could lead to huge street protests, with President Emmanuel Macron going so far as to say a “civil war” could break out if the far left or right wins by a large margin in Sunday’s runoff vote.

Thevenot, a re-election candidate for Macron’s Renaissance party, was with members of her team in her constituency in a Paris suburb when the group was attacked after trying to stop a group of youths from defaced posters.

In a report to the French daily newspaper Le Parisien, the minister said that although she was not injured in the attack, her deputy and a member of her campaign team were taken to hospital with injuries.

Four people have been arrested for questioning in connection with the incident, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin told French television channel France 2 on Thursday morning.

Thevenot has vowed to continue his campaign, saying in a post on X on Thursday that “violence is never the answer.”

Politicians from all political camps immediately condemned the attack and issued a stark warning against election-related violence.

Jordan Bardella, the leader of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN), expressed his “full support” to Thevenot after the attack and called for “calm and appeasement”.

“For several weeks we have seen an increase in violence on the streets in connection with the election campaign,” Bardella told French CNN partner BFMTV on Wednesday evening.

Bardella acknowledged that there were links to both the far-right and far-left camps in outbreaks of violence and promised that if appointed he would be a prime minister who would “restore order” in France.

Acting Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who is fighting for his seat, also condemned the attack on Wednesday, saying “violence and intimidation have no place in French democracy.”

Another 30,000 police officers and gendarmes would be deployed across France overnight from Sunday to Sunday to prevent unrest, Darmanin said on Thursday.

Darmanin said the increased police presence would ensure that neither the far right nor the far left “benefit from the results” and succeed in inciting violence.

RN, the party of far-right doyenne Marine Le Pen, led the first round of French parliamentary elections on Sunday, putting it closer to power than ever before.

Following an unusually high turnout, the RN bloc secured 33.15 percent of the vote, while the left-leaning New Popular Front (NFP) coalition came second with 27.99 percent and Macron’s Ensemble alliance slipped to a miserable third place with 20.76 percent, according to the final results released by the Interior Ministry on Monday.

While the RN is on track to win the majority of seats in the National Assembly, it could fall short of the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority, suggesting that France is heading towards a parliament without a clear majority and further political uncertainty.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed the location for the candidate’s complaint. It was Cherbourg.