France ends ugly campaign and draws breath before historic vote

France is on the brink of a historic vote this Sunday, following a rushed and sometimes violent election campaign. Centrist Prime Minister Gabriel Attal warned that a far-right government would 'unleash hatred and violence. ' Meanwhile, Jordan Bardella, leader of the far-right National Rally, accused his rivals of immoral and anti-democratic behavior, urging voters to give him an outright majority. Last Sunday, one in three French voters backed the National Rally in the first round of parliamentary elections. The choice now is between France's first far-right government in modern times or political deadlock, and voters are anxious about the future. The atmosphere is so tense that 30,000 extra police officers are being deployed. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin reported that 51 candidates or their supporters had been physically attacked. In one incident, an extremist network published a list of nearly 100 lawyers 'for elimination' after they signed an open letter against the National Rally. President Emmanuel Macron's decision to call the election less than a month ago came as a shock, and the consequences are still unknown. When voters discuss the election, the tension is palpable. Kaltoun, a woman whose hair is covered, said that in her town near the Belgian border, where the National Rally won the first round, she and her daughter have felt increasingly uncomfortable. 'It's a remark or a look; each election it gets worse,' she said. In nearby Tourcoing, Gérald Darmanin is facing a strong challenge from a far-right candidate who was just 800 votes behind him last Sunday. To give him a better chance of defeating the National Rally, left-wing candidate Leslie Mortreux decided to withdraw from the second round. In the 500 seats being decided by run-off votes, 217 candidates from the left-wing New Popular Front and the Macron Ensemble alliance have also withdrawn to block the National Rally from winning. Although dozens of three-way races are still going ahead, 409 seats will now be decided by one-on-one contests. After the first round, some opinion polls suggested that the National Rally had a chance of winning an outright majority in the National Assembly. However, the final polls of the campaign indicate that this is no longer likely. Even though Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Rally, believes they still have a 'serious chance' of winning the 289 seats needed to control the Assembly, pollsters estimate that about 200 seats is a more realistic figure. One major poll released just before the end of the campaign suggested that the withdrawals by third-placed left-wing and centrist candidates had succeeded in thwarting the hopes of National Rally boss Marine Le Pen's protégé of becoming prime minister at the age of 28. 'We are presiding over the birth of a single Mélenchon-Macron party,' Jordan Bardella complained. 'And this dishonorable alliance has been formed with the single goal of keeping us from winning. ' The Popular Front, composed of Socialists, Greens, and Communists, is led by radical firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon. He is widely condemned by his rivals as an extremist and is certainly no ally of President Emmanuel Macron. Despite their agreement to keep out the far right, there is no love lost between the two camps. 'You don't beat the far right with the far left,' the interior minister said, even though a France Unbowed candidate had pulled out to help him win. The Macron centrists are third in the polls, well behind the Popular Front and the National Rally. 'In France, we're fed up with Macron, and I'm more in the center,' said Marc, a voter in Tourcoing. 'The cost of living is bad, and the rich have become richer while the poor are poorer. ' National Rally has focused its campaign on media appearances by Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen, and there have been claims of 'phantom candidates' barely showing up in some areas. In Mennecy, a town south of Paris, Mathieu Hillaire of the Popular Front is in a run-off with RN candidate Nathalie Da Conceicao Carvalho, after the pro-Macron candidate pulled out to give Hillaire a better chance of blocking the far right. Hillaire said that while the climate was less tense locally, some people were still worried. Many of the National Rally's policies focus on cutting the cost of living and tackling law and order, but their anti-immigration plans have raised particular concerns. The National Rally aims to give French citizens 'national preference' over immigrants for jobs and housing and wants to abolish the right to automatic French citizenship for children of foreign parents if those children have spent five years in France from the age of 11 to 18. Dual citizens would also be barred from dozens of sensitive jobs. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal spoke of an 'uncertainty and worry' among the French people. He said that in the first round, his party had averted the risk of Jean-Luc Mélenchon winning a majority. Now the risk comes from a far right whose policies would 'unleash hatred and violence with a plan to stigmatize some of our fellow citizens' and be catastrophic for the French economy. But what happens on Sunday night if there is deadlock and no obvious way forward towards forming a government? The Olympic Games are now only 20 days away, and there is a suggestion that France might have no government or prime minister when it hosts such a high-profile global event. Mr. Attal, who had earlier suggested his minority government might stay in place 'as long as necessary,' was far more vague on Friday night. 'Next week I don't know what I'll be doing, where I'll be doing it,' he said. 'But I know who I'll be doing it for: the people of France, that's all that counts for me.