In France, Anti-Vax Fury, Politics Make Public Service Risky

As France faces election season, fury among opponents of COVID vaccines increasingly bubbles over into violence directed at elected representatives.

In Sainte-Anastasie-sur-Issole, France, a village that curls catlike in verdant Provence hillocks, voters are making an early start on France's presidential election.

From their ballot box this weekend and next will come the name of the candidate — picked from among dozens — that they want their mayor to endorse.

Normally, the choice would be Mayor Olivier Hoffmann's alone, under a right that, at election time, turns small-potato public office-holders into hot properties — wooed by would-be candidates who need 500 endorsements from elected officials to get onto the April ballot.