France to deploy more police to prevent trouble after Sunday election

4/7/2024 18:46

        Some 30,000 police will be deployed across France late on Sunday following the high-stakes runoff of a parliamentary election to ensure there is no trouble, a minister said, as two candidates said they had been victims of attacks on the campaign trail.
        
        Sunday's second round will determine whether Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN) secures a parliamentary majority for the first time and forms the next government in France, the euro zone's second-largest economy.
        
        The campaign has been marred by political tensions but also some violence, and government spokeswoman Prisca Thevenot said she and her team had been attacked by a small group of youths on Wednesday evening while out putting up campaign posters.
        
        While Thevenot herself was not harmed, her deputy and a party activist were injured by the unidentified group of about 10 youths who were defacing campaign posters, Thevenot told Le Parisien newspaper.
        
        An RN candidate in Savoie, Marie Dauchy, also said she had been attacked by a shopkeeper at a market on Wednesday.