France’s PM
Gabriel Attal
on Monday faced accusations of deliberately seeking to eclipse the head of the ruling party’s list in
European elections
when he unexpectedly appeared on a stage where she was taking part in a radio debate. Attal strolled into Franceinfo’s
radio debate
with lead candidates amid an exchange between the anchor and
Valerie Hayer
, the head of the ruling party’s list for the June 9 polls.
Hayer has largely failed to score with the public in the campaign for the election where the French far right appear set to score a victory in a major setback for the ruling
Renaissance party
of Prez Macron. “Hello, sorry I’m bursting onto the stage,” Attal told the audience as Hayer looked on, saying it was important to him to “encourage Valerie”. He then launched into a shortspeech on how many key issues like climate change “can only be tackled through Europe”. Hard-left France Unbowed MP Raquel Garrido called the incident “mansplaining or, to be more precise, manterrupting”.