Huge police presence in France as fears mount of violence following election

Some 30,000 police will be deployed across France late on Sunday following the high-stakes second round of a parliamentary election, a minister said, as three candidates reported having been attacked on the campaign trail.

- DOMINIQUE VIDALON

Sunday’s second round will determine whether Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party (RN) secures a parliamentary majority for the first time and forms the next government in France, the eurozone’s second-largest economy. The campaign has been marred by political tensions but also by growing violence.

France’s interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, said he would be “very careful” about security on Sunday evening, when the election results will be announced. Some 5,000 of the 30,000 police to be deployed that evening will be located in Paris and its surroundings, and they will “ensure that the radical right and radical left do not take advantage of the situation to cause mayhem”, he told France 2 TV.