France's Government Spokesperson Attacked On Campaign Trail, Days Before Election

PARIS (AP) — In the final stretch before a high-stakes French legislative election on July 7, several candidates have reported being attacked on the campaign trail, including government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot.

Thevenot, a candidate for the centrist Ensemble alliance led by President Emmanuel Macron, her deputy and a party activist were putting up election posters near Paris on Wednesday night when a group attacked them, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on the social media platform X.

Thevenot was not injured and will continue to campaign, she said on X, but her deputy and the party activist were taken to a hospital. It was not immediately clear what type of injuries they suffered.

The prosecutor’s office said it opened an investigation into an assault with a weapon against a public official, but provided no indication of what the motivation for the attack was.

Four people, including three minors, are in custody, prosecutors said.

“Violence is never the answer,” Thevenot said Thursday in a brief message on X.

Politicians on all sides condemned the attack and others on candidates that have been reported in recent days.

Also on Wednesday, Marie Dauchy, a National Rally candidate in Savoy, said she was assaulted 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.

Nicolas Conquer, a candidate for The Republicans, said on social media that he was assaulted while distributing election flyers in the city of Cherbourg on July 2. He was accompanied by a minor when the incident happened, and reported it to police, he said. He gave no other details of the attack.

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