French center-right lawmaker in hospital after suspected assault
Published June 16, 2017
(JTA) — A French conservative politician was knocked unconscious after a man handing out fliers threw them in her face, causing her to fall.
Pictures published Thursday by the campaign staff of Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, who is running on France’s Republicans ticket, showed her lying on the pavement in a Left Bank street market in Paris.
She was taken to the hospital and prosecutors have opened an investigation.
The man called her a “crappy bobo,” an AFP reporter said. Bobo is a derogatory term for an urban hipster.
Kosciusko-Morizet, whose ancestors were Jewish but who was brought up Catholic, is well-known in France for having served as a cabinet minister under former president Nicolas Sarkozy.
She had been handing out Republican party election leaflets ahead of Sunday’s National Assembly election.
Kosciusko-Morizet lost her balance after a man pushed leaflets in her face, witnesses said
The man left the scene immediately, while being chased by a party official. His motives for attacking the lawmaker were not immediately clear.
A former environment minister, Kosciusko-Morizet is at risk of losing her Assembly seat to a candidate from the centrist party of President Emmanuel Macron.
Her rival, Gilles le Gendre, suspended campaigning and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe visited her in hospital.
She was the only woman in the race for this year’s Republican presidential nomination.
