Deadly attack halts campaigning

A policeman was murdered on the Champs-Elysees

The murder of a policeman on the Champs-Elysees has forced an early end to campaigning for the leading candidates in France’s presidential election as they head into Sunday’s first-round of voting with the race wide open. Investigators are trying to assess whether the man who killed a policeman in Paris on Thursday had accomplices, a French prosecutor said on Friday.

Republican Francois Fillon, the National Front’s Marine Le Pen, centrist Emmanuel Macron, and Socialist Benoit Hamon all canceled events planned for Friday and instead made televised statements about how they’d fight terrorism. No campaigning is allowed on Saturday — a French tradition of a quiet election eve. Melenchon and Fillon head into the first round hoping to snatch a place in the May 7 runoff from front-runners Le Pen and Macron after polls tightened during the last weeks.  The attack, which left one policeman dead and two others injured, could change the dynamic of the race once more, according to Bruno Jeanbart, head of political studies at pollster OpinionWay.