A French junior minister and her team were attacked while putting up posters on the campaign trail on Wednesday, resulting in her ending her ground campaign.
Government spokesperson and candidate Prisca Thevenot was accosted by four individuals in the western Parisian suburb of Meudon located in Hauts-de-Seine.
Thevenot was uninjured, but a member of her team suffered a broken jaw while her deputy Virginie Lanlo was also beaten. Both were taken to Percy Hospital in Clamart for treatment.
Speaking to Le Parisien, the Macronist spokesperson revealed her campaign team “found themselves next to a small group of young people” who had been “defacing posters.”
When one of her group called out the youths on their vandalism, they were “immediately attacked.”
“Everything happened very, very quickly,” Thevenot added, also confirming she had filed a complaint at the Meudon police station.
Four suspects have been arrested, including three minors and one adult.
No further information regarding the attackers has been published by the authorities. However, numerous journalists and media outlets have suggested the perpetrators were of a migration background and this fact was being deliberately censored over fears it would increase the support for Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella’s Rassemblement National (RN) ahead of the second round of voting in the French legislative elections.
Journalist Damien Rieu posted on X: “You won’t hear it on TV but one of Prisca Thevenot’s attackers is called Wacim, another is Ivorian. They will try to hide the information until Sunday. A minister who is attacked by scum… that could boost the RN.”
Europe 1 confirmed that of the four suspects arrested, three hold French citizenship and one is an Ivorian migrant. No further details about the three French citizens have been published.
Journalist Amaury Bucco of Valeurs Actuelles reported that one man had torn down posters before addressing several young girls in the neighborhood and preaching the Koran.
“These are the same people who caused the riots last year,” he wrote, citing a local source referencing civil unrest caused by activists affiliated with the far left.
“The residents are a bit annoyed. They don’t understand why the authorities only resort to arrests when a female politician is attacked, while they are subjected to this gang every day,” he added.
Thevenot took to social media herself to thank the emergency services for their response and confirmed she would stop campaigning following the attack.
“Violence is never the answer. I will end my campaign on the ground,” she wrote.
