French center-right lawmaker in hospital after suspected assault

Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, whose ancestors were Jewish but who was raised Catholic, knocked unconscious while handing out flyers

By JTA 16 June 2017, 7:48 pm

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A firefighter gives assistance after Les Republicains (LR) party candidate Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet collapsed after an altercation with a passerby while campaigning in the 5th arrondissement in Paris on June 15, 2017, ahead of the second round of the French legislative election. (AFP/Geoffroy van der Hasselt)

A conservative politician in France was knocked unconscious after a man shoved the fliers she was distributing in her face, causing her to fall.

Photos published Thursday by the campaign staff of Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, who is running on the Republicans ticket in Sunday’s National Assembly election, showed her lying on the pavement in a Left Bank street market in Paris. She was taken to the hospital.

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.

Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet (Arnaud Perrin / Wikipedia)

She had been handing out Republican party election leaflets when the man pushed them in her face, causing Kosciusko-Morizet to lose her balance, witnesses said. The man fled immediately and was chased by a party official. His motives for the attack 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.

Prosecutors have opened an investigation.