Riot fears if far-right and far-left hopefuls win first round
RIOTS could break out in cities across France after results are announced of the first round of the presidential election, intelligence services have warned.
The most unpredictable vote in the country in decades is going ahead amid a heightened terror alert.
A report by French intelligence services said trouble is almost certain if the far-right leader Marine Le Pen and her far-left counterpart Jean-Luc Melenchon are the two candidates who get through to the second and final round on May 7. The confidential document, leaked to Le Parisien newspaper, said that the “jihadist threat” is at the top of the list of potential security problems as millions of people cast their ballots.
The report came just two days after a French jihadist claiming allegiance to Isil shot dead a policeman on the Champs Elysees in Paris, bringing election campaigning to an early end and thrusting security issues back to the top of the agenda.
Around 50,000 police officers and 7,000 soldiers will be deployed to protect voters around France today for the first round, which has turned into a four-way race between Ms Le Pen, Mr Melenchon, the scandal-scarred conservative Francois Fillon, and the maverick centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron.
An opinion poll conducted last Thursday and Friday showed Ms Le Pen and Mr Macron tied on 23pc, ahead of Mr Melenchon with 19.5pc and Mr Fillon on 19pc.
But due to the margin of error pollsters factor in, there is no safe bet as to which two candidates will make it to the second round. The vote, which comes in the wake of the Brexit shock and Donald Trump’s presidential triumph in the US, has so far been the most unpredictable French presidential election in decades.
The intelligence report leaked to Le Parisien said that spontaneous demonstrations — which might turn violent — could be held in major cities and troubled banlieues after the results are announced at around 7pm Irish time today.
The report spoke of “public disturbances in the case of the presence (in the second round) of parties which are said to be extremist”, a reference to Ms Le Pen
and the Communist-backed firebrand Mr Melenchon. “In this case, protests are almost certainly to be expected,” it added.
The document also warned of farmers, hospital staff and students taking to the streets to protest against the results. Polls suggest that one in four voters is still undecided and voters are more worried about jobs and the economy than terrorism. But analysts warned that last Thursday’s shooting in Paris could change that.
The anti-EU and anti-immigrant candidate Ms Le Pen moved quickly to present herself as the strongest defender against Islamist radicals, the threat of which has contributed to the country’s state of emergency since a string of terror attacks that began in 2015 and have killed more than 230 people.
“This war against us is ceaseless and merciless,” she said, accusing President Francois Hollande’s Socialist government of a “cowardly” response to the threat.
Mr Macron and Mr Fillon also hastily convened televised briefings in which they vowed to protect the country.
Mr Melenchon was the only one of the four to stick to his schedule after last Thursday’s attack, which came just days after two men were arrested in Marseille on suspicion of planning an imminent attack on one of the candidates.
He called for a “Europe of rebels” during a rally last Friday evening in Paris with Pablo Iglesias, the head of Spain’s far-left Podemos party. “Several Europes are possible, it doesn’t have to be just their Europe,” said Mr Melenchon, a eurosceptic who has pledged to renegotiate treaties with the bloc.