PARIS — Candidates were racing to register before the Sunday afternoon deadline at early parliamentary elections who are redesigning France’s political landscape, with a newly formed left alliance to counter The rise of the extreme right. losing, in the last few hours, a possible legislator previously convicted of spousal assault.
Adrien Quatennens announced the withdrawal of his candidacy, which had opened cracks in the incipient New Popular Front. The uneasy coalition of parties from the extreme left to the center left is campaigning together with the prospect that the June 30 and July 7 elections could produce the first far-right government in France since the Nazi occupation.
President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, in a shocking response to a humiliating defeat by the far right in the June 9 European elections.
Quatennens had previously been a legislator for the far-left France Insoumise party. Despite being sentenced in 2022 to a four-month suspended prison sentence for spousal assault, Quatennens was included among the 230 people France Unbowed first presented as electoral candidates for the New Popular Front, immediately testing unity. of the alliance.
François Ruffin, another outgoing leftist lawmaker running again, alleged that Quatennens was selected over other potential candidates because of his loyalty to France Insoumise leader Jean-Luc Melenchon. In a tweet, Ruffin fumed: “You prefer a man who beats his wife, a perpetrator of domestic violence, to comrades who have the gall to have a disagreement with the great leader.”
The pressure led Quatennens to announce on Sunday that he would not run, saying he did not want his candidacy to harm the New Popular Front and its chances of keeping the far-right at bay.
“In less than three weeks, this beautiful country… could be ruled by fascists for the first time since World War II,” Quatennens said. “The threat is much greater than we think.”
The 34-year-old again expressed remorse for what he described as “this slap” directed at his now ex-wife before their divorce, saying: “I immediately regretted it.”
Candidates had until 6 p.m. Sunday to register and have been struggling to gather documentation and launch their campaigns.
Macron is betting that in the early legislative vote his centrist party will bounce back from its crushing defeat to the far-right National Rally party in the European Parliament elections as voters who have shifted to the far right will resist the prospect. for it to make the decision. power in France.
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