French mayor held over attack on right-wing candidate

PARIS: A 55-year-old village mayor was arrested on Saturday for allegedly attacking a right-wing parliamentary candidate while she was campaigning.

Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, a flamboyant 44-year-old candidate for the Republicans party, was canvassing for votes at a Paris market on Thursday when a man called her a “stupid bobo” — a blend of hipster and bourgeois — and shoved her leaflets in her face, causing her to fall.

The former environment minister blacked out for awhile before being rushed to hospital.

Vincent Debraize, the mayor of Champignolles, a small village in Normandy in northern France, denied he had verbally or physically assaulted her, Kosciusko-Morizet’s lawyer, Xavier Autain, said.

Debraize was placed in custody for “intentional violence against a person conducting public services”, according to Autain.

After the attack, the man left, heading for the closest metro entrance. He was photographed, and his picture made the rounds in local media.

Kosciusko-Morizet faces an uphill battle to win the second round of parliamentary elections in the well-heeled fifth, sixth and seventh districts here.

Her rival, Gilles Le Gendre, a 59-year-old business consultant who represents President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Republic on the Move party, scored 41.8 per cent to her 18.1 per cent in last weekend’s first round.

Yesterday, voters went to the polls that was set to hand a landslide victory to Macron.

The assembly is due to be transformed with a new generation of lawmakers — younger, more female and ethnically diverse — winning seats in the afterglow of Macron’s success. AFP