Candidates race to register for French election but one convicted of spousal assault withdraws

PARIS (AP) — Candidates in France are racing to register for an early parliamentary election before a deadline expires to take part in a vote that’s redrawing the country’s political landscape. But a left-wing alliance newly formed to counter the surge of the far right lost a prospective lawmaker previously convicted for spousal assault. Adrien Quatennens on Sunday announced the withdrawal of his candidacy that had opened cracks in the fledgling New Popular Front. The uneasy coalition of left-wing parties is campaigning together against the prospect that the two-round June 30 and July 7 election could produce France’s first far-right government since the Nazi occupation. Quatennens was handed a suspended four-month jail term in 2022 for spousal assault.