Summary of the day
As the French campaign comes to a close ahead of Sunday’s second round of elections, opinion polls showed the far right winning fewer seats than originally projected, with the withdrawal of many candidates in three-way races impacting estimates.
The latest Ifop-Fiducial poll put the National Rally and its allies at 170-210 seats. Ipsos put them at 175-205 seats.
The National Rally’s Jordan Bardella called on supporters to mobilise to vote and not be intimidated. Marine Le Pen also urged supporters to go to the polls and insisted the party could still win an absolute majority.
The French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, urged all political parties to call for calm on a tense last day of campaigning.
The interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said that “this campaign is short and yet we already have 51 candidates, substitutes and activists who have been physically assaulted.”
The Guardian spoke with voters and candidates in the Paris area about their experience with the campaign. Some of the voters expressed frustration with the “mess” of the political status quo.
French PM urges calm after assaults in run-up to second round vote
The French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, has urged all political parties to call for calm on a tense last day of campaigning for a snap election in which the far-right hopes to win a majority in parliament.
“Violence and intimidation have no place in our society,” Attal wrote in a social media post.
The interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said: “This campaign is short and yet we already have 51 candidates, substitutes and activists who have been physically assaulted.”
Darmanin told BFMTV that some of the assaults had been extremely serious and led to people being admitted to hospital. He said more than 30 arrests had been made across France and denounced what he called “a climate of great violence towards politics and all that it represents”.
