2024 France Elections: Authorities deploy more police amid fears of violence after poll

Authorities have informed that around 30,000 police will be stationed throughout France on Sunday (Jul 7) night in anticipation of possible unrest in the aftermath of the results of a snap election.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said that 5,000 police would be on duty in Paris and in the neighbouring region to "ensure that the radical right and radical left does not take advantage of the situation to cause mayhem".

Prisca Thevenot, who is the government spokesman, claimed that she and her team had been attacked on Wednesday night while hanging campaign posters in Meudon, outside of Paris. Four persons, including one under the age of 18, were arrested. Thevenot told Le Parisien newspaper that she was not harmed, but her deputy and a party activist were injured.

In a separate incident, Marie Dauchy, who is an RN candidate in Savoie, also said she had been attacked by a shopkeeper at a market on Wednesday (Jul 3).

A former spokesman for President Emmanuel Macron said that a 77-year-old deputy mayor of a small town near Grenoble, in southeastern France, was punched in the face on Thursday (Jul 4) morning when putting up a poster for Olivier Veran, who denounced a "completely unprecedented context of violence in this campaign".

What to expect polls?

In the second round of voting, Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) is hoping to win a majority of the 577 seats in France's National Assembly.

Meanwhile, a poll on Wednesday predicted that RN will not win a majority of seats in next Sunday's parliamentary run-off election, suggesting efforts by French mainstream parties to block the far right might work.

A Harris Interactive poll for Challenges magazine showed the RN would fall short of the 289 seats required to control the 577-seat National Assembly.

The poll suggested that RN and its allies would get just 190 to 220 seats, meanwhile, the centre-right Republicans (LR) would win 30 to 50 seats.

"The result of the withdrawals is a clear step back for RN," Challenges reporter Remi Clement wrote on X.

Mbappe's request to the voters

France captain Kylian Mbappe said Thursday it was "really urgent" to vote in the second round of legislative elections in the country.

"I think more than ever we need to go out and vote. We can't leave our country in the hands of these people," Mbappe said at a press conference in Hamburg ahead of France's Euro 2024 quarter-final against Portugal there on Friday.

"It is really urgent. We have seen the results, they are catastrophic. I hope it changes and that everyone goes out and votes, and votes for the right people."

(With inputs from agencies)