France election candidates report getting attacked on the campaign trail
Global News
Tensions are high as left-wing and moderate groups try to prevent the anti-immigration, nationalist National Rally from winning an historic absolute legislative majority.
In the final stretch before France’s high-stakes parliamentary elections Sunday, several candidates have reported being attacked on the campaign trail, including government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot.
The French interior minister said Thursday that 30,000 police officers will be deployed on voting day, including 5,000 in the Paris region. Tensions are high as left-wing and moderate groups try to prevent the anti-immigration, nationalist National Rally from winning an absolute legislative majority, which would be a first and a major historical shift for France.
Candidates have complained of both hate speech and physical violence in the brief and polarizing campaign for the snap elections.
Thevenot, a candidate for the centrist Ensemble alliance led by President Emmanuel Macron, said she and a deputy and a party activist were putting up election posters in Meudon near Paris on Wednesday night when a group attacked them. Thevenot’s deputy and the party activist were taken to a hospital.
“The symbolic violence of words quickly was replaced by physical violence,″ she told reporters while back on the campaign trail Thursday. ‘’We are still a bit shocked … I remain mobilized.”
She said the motive for the attack was being investigated. The prosecutor’s office said it opened an investigation into a gang assault with a weapon against a public official. Four people, including three minors, are in custody, prosecutors said.
Politicians on all sides condemned the attack and others on candidates from various parties.
Marie Dauchy, a National Rally candidate in Savoy, said she was assaulted Wednesday at a food market while campaigning and announced she was abandoning the race. Her party’s leader and three-time presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, said on X that two men had “cowardly” assaulted Dauchy.
In blunt remarks, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and France’s President Emmanuel Macron said global democracy was being attacked as never before.
The protest represented the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose father fled Iran just before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Here's why Trump may be keen on acquiring Greenland, and why it's an important strategic security asset no matter who's in charge.
Denmark has welcomed a meeting with the U.S. next week to discuss President Donald Trump’s renewed call for Greenland to come under American control.
The tanker had recently changed its name from Bella 1 to the Marinera and adopted a Russian flag.
Denmark and Greenland are seeking a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the Trump administration doubled down on its intention to take over the Danish territory.
Premier David Eby announced that the trade mission will promote B.C.'s businesses, critical minerals and sustainable wood products.
The death toll for Venezuelan security officials comes after Cuba’s government announced that 32 Cuban military and police officers working in Venezuela had died.
Authorities in the Netherlands told people to plan to stay at home if at all possible on Wednesday, with a fresh blizzard expected to arrive overnight.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Greenland's security is included in NATO, and the future of Greenland is a decision for the Danish territory and Denmark to make.
Canada’s statement does not mention the United States, with Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Ananda calling on 'all parties to exercise restraint and uphold international law.'
A viral video clip from the fictional series Jack Ryan may have eerily predicted some of the events in Venezuela over the weekend, but more than five years before the fact.
'We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,' Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.