A leading female French politician was knocked unconscious by a vicious thug who launched a ‘cowardly and intolerable assault’ as she handed out leaflets in a market.
Horrifying pictures show Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, a 44-year-old mother of two, out cold in Paris’ 5th arrondissement.
Mirror reports that Nathalie was taken to hospital after being knocked out cold by the man, but her condition has now been described as ‘stable’.
Moments before Mrs Kosciusko-Morizet, a former minister who is known in France by her initials of NKM, was fronted up by a so-far unidentified shaven-headed man in his 50s.
Pointing his finger in the politician’s face, he said she was a ‘dirty bobo’ – the French word for a young aspiring professional with liberal views, or yuppie as they are often called in the UK and USA.
The man also made a reference to Paris’s Socialist mayor, saying: “It’s your fault we have Hidalgo as mayor.”
It was Ms Hidalgo who later called the assault in Maubert square (Place Maubert) ‘cowardly and intolerable’, and called for everything to be done to bring him to justice.
France’s Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, also spoke out against ‘this unacceptable act of violence’.
NKM is in fact a conservative and was out campaigning for the Republicans party in upcoming parliamentary elections.
The attacker said NKM should ‘go back to the Essonne’ – the department to the south of Paris where NKM used to be an MP.
She is now standing to re-enter parliament in Paris itself, following two-round elections which end on Sunday.
Apparently expecting a blow to the face, NKM collapsed, and is thought to have banged her head on the concrete ground.
It was a few minutes before she regained consciousness, and by that time onlookers had called the emergency services.
Paramedics treated her at the scene, and then rushed her to hospital, where her condition was later described as stable.
Meanwhile, the assailant had run off, and was last seen disappearing into the Paris underground Metro train system.
NKM, who last year failed to win the Republicans party ticket to stand for president, is a household name in France.
NKM’s grandfather, Jacques Kosciusko, was a French Resistance hero, and a former ambassador to the USA.
She was first elected to the National Assembly at the age of only 29, and at one stage was the official spokesman for former President Nicolas Sarkozy, who also appointed her Ecology Minister between 2010 and 2012.
A spokesman for Paris prosecutors said a criminal enquiry had been opened into the incident, and that the hunt for the assailant was continuing.
