French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen heckled by protesters in Guadeloupe

PARIS, March 27 (Reuters) – Protesters jeered and swarmed around far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, streaming into a hotel in the overseas territory of Guadeloupe where she was recording a television program, BFM TV reported on Sunday.

Protestors chanted “out Le Pen” and “racist Le Pen,” as they surrounded the candidate on Saturday while she was escorted out of the room and through the hotel.

Her campaign intends to file a complaint, her spokesman Julien Odoul told Franceinfo.

“This is agitation from extreme left-wing militants, local Black groups who spoil everything, wherever they are active in the territory of the Republic,” he said, referring to an anti-fascist movement that was often blamed for violence at street marches in France during the yellow vest movement.

“I find it shocking, like everyone else, and I strongly condemn them,” President Emmanuel Macron said on French TV channel France 3, adding he denounced “all forms of violence, verbal and physical”.

“I fight Mrs. Le Pen’s ideas — but with respect,” he added.

Opinion polls show Le Pen and Macron as the two candidates likely to come out top in the first round of the election on April 10 and go through to the April 24 run-off vote, with Macron seen as the eventual winner.

The far-right leader has focused on domestic issues such as inflation and cost of living during a campaign that has been overshadowed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while Macron has been engaged in a flurry of diplomatic meetings, including NATO, G7 and European summits last week.

Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau and Mimosa Spencer
Editing by Frances Kerry

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