France to deploy 30,000 police post-election to prevent violence

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
5 Jul 2024 09:06

Amid mounting concerns over a surge in racist attacks, approximately 30,000 police officers are set to be deployed across France on Sunday night.

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French riot police at the entrance of the Vallee-du-Tir district, in Noumea on May 2024 (AFP)

Around 30,000 police officers will be stationed throughout France on Sunday night due to concerns over potential violence following the final results of a snap election, where the far right aims to secure a parliamentary majority.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced that 5,000 police officers would be deployed in Paris and its surrounding areas to "prevent the radical right and radical left from exploiting the situation to create disorder."

Four individuals, including one minor, were arrested after government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot reported that she and her team were attacked on Wednesday evening while putting up campaign posters in Meudon, near Paris.

Her deputy and a party activist were injured after the team confronted a group of around 10 youths, asking them to stop defacing campaign posters.

“We said to them, without being aggressive, that [defacing posters] was not allowed,” Thevenot told Le Parisien. She mentioned that the police arrived within five minutes of the attack.

“Violence is never the answer. I’ll continue my on-the-ground campaigning,” Thevenot wrote on X.

A few hours before the attack, she expressed her concerns as a person of color in a "complicated" political environment during an interview with French broadcaster TF1.

“I don’t say this only as spokesperson of the government, but more as the daughter of immigrants and mother of mixed-race children,” Thevenot said, citing a rise in the frequency and severity of racist attacks.

“They no longer do it anonymously, but with uncovered faces and even with a certain pride,” she stressed.

Candidates report attacks ahead of French election

Marie Dauchy, a candidate for Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party (RN) in Savoie, reported being attacked by a shopkeeper at a market on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Nicolas Conquer, a candidate for The Republicans, stated on social media that he was assaulted while distributing election flyers in Cherbourg on Tuesday.

“Let’s reject the climate of violence and hatred that is taking hold,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said in a post on Thursday on X, stressing that violence and intimidation had “no place in our democracy.”

On Sunday's pivotal second round, the far-right, anti-immigration RN is expected to emerge as the largest party in parliament, regardless of whether it secures the 289 seats required for an outright majority to form the next government.

Both President Emmanuel Macron's centrist coalition and a broad left-wing alliance have withdrawn over 200 candidates from the final runoff in a coordinated effort to curb the far-right's seat gains. Predicting the exact number of seats the RN and its allies might capture in the 577-seat National Assembly is challenging, but recent Harris Interactive polling for Challenges magazine indicated they could potentially secure up to 220 seats.

Le Pen claimed on Thursday that the party could achieve an absolute majority if voter turnout was high.

“I think there is still the capacity to have an absolute majority with the electorate turning out in a final effort to get what they want,” she told BFM TV. “I say turn out to vote, as it’s a really important moment to get a change in politics in all the areas that are making you suffer right now.”