Far‑right candidate drops out of French election after Nazi photo scandal

Ludivine Daoudi, candidate of the French far-right, has just announced that she will not run in the second round of parliamentary elections, which will take place on 7 July. The decision was made after a compromising photo was revealed. Daoudi posed for it, using an element of a Nazi uniform.

Ludivine Daoudi, running from the Calvados constituency in northwestern France, announced five days before the second round of parliamentary elections that she is withdrawing from the race. She decided to do so concerning the scandal that shocked the French public.

Emma Fourreau, a candidate of the left-wing New People's Front from Unsubmissive France and Daoudi's opponent from the same district, stirred up the controversy. On Monday, Fourreau posted a screenshot of a Facebook post from Daoudi's account on the X platform. It shows the smiling far-right candidate posing in a Luftwaffe non-commissioned officer's cap with a swastika.

In the first round of early elections, Daoudi received nearly 20 per cent of the vote. In the current situation, voters from the Calvados constituency will have only two candidates in the second round: Fourreau, who published the compromising post about her political opponent, and Joela Bruneau from the right-wing Republican party.

The far-right National Rally won in the first round of parliamentary elections in France. Marine Le Pen's party received 33.2 per cent of the vote, while the New People's Front won the trust of 28 per cent of the voters.

The centrist camp of President Emmanuel Macron received 20 per cent of the vote, placing third after the first round. The second round of elections in France will take place on 7 July.