He was one of the most divisive candidates of the Nouveau Front Populaire left-wing alliance. Raphaël Arnault, a candidate S-registered – referring to a list of people under surveillance over national security concerns – was elected by a wide margin in his southern France constituency. With 55% of the vote, Arnault beat incumbent far-right Rassemblement National MP Catherine Jaouen (45%) by 10 points. Nominated by the radical left La France Insoumise (LFI) party, he benefited from the withdrawal of dissident left-wing candidate Philippe Pascal between the two rounds. The candidate from the presidential camp, who came fourth (16%), did not give any instructions on who to support in the second round.
Arnault's candidacy created controversy from the get-go. "I call for an awakening in the face of the worst," tweeted Rassemblement National President Jordan Bardella, ahead of the July 7 vote. "The leader of a small anti-Semitic group must not enter the Assemblée Nationale." On the left, the Socialist mayor of Avignon, Cécile Helle, initially backed the candidacy of dissident left-wing independent Pascal against Arnault. Helle said he "represented an ultra-violent left in which she did not recognize herself," before rallying behind the candidate in between the two rounds.
"Anti-fascism is coming to the Assemblée," enthused the new MP on X, on Sunday, July 7, with the three arrows symbolizing the logo of La Jeune Garde ("Young Guard"), the anti-fascist collective he co-founded in 2018. These three arrows are inspired by the symbol of the French section of the Socialist International in the 1930s, a symbol originally designed in Germany to cover swastikas.
La Jeune Garde advocates a fight against the far right, sometimes through violence. In 2022, Arnault was convicted of "violence in a group," according to information confirmed by the Lyon prosecutor's office to online media outlet StreetPress. Six members of the Jeune Garde allegedly slammed a man they suspected of belonging to an identitarian group against a wall, asking him to unlock his phone. More recently, eight members of the collective were indicted for "intentional violence on the grounds of race, ethnicity or religion" following a verbal altercation with a 15-year-old teenager, a member of the Jewish Defense League, in the Paris métro after a rally by LFI MEP Rima Hassan, according to Libération.
Arnault is an alias – the candidate no longer uses his birth name for fear of his safety. In 2021, he was attacked on the forecourt of the Gare de Lyon in Paris by members of the ultra-right-wing group Zouaves Paris. He recounted the beating on X, his eyebrows bloody.
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