The election campaign in France has been marred not only by political tensions but also by violence, including reports from at least two candidates who claimed they were attacked while on the campaign trail.

On Wednesday, the spokeswoman for the French government, Prisca Thevenot, said that she and her team were attacked by a group of youths while putting up campaign posters on Wednesday evening.

Although Thevenot escaped unharmed, her deputy and a party activist were injured.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said four people had been arrested in relation to the attack on Thevenot’s team.

On the same day, Marie Dauchy, a candidate for the far-right National Rally (RN), also said that she had been attacked by a shopkeeper at a market.

Darmanin said he would be “very careful” about security on Sunday evening, when the election’s results will be announced.

Some 5,000 of the 30,000 police deployed that evening will be located in Paris and its surroundings, and they will “ensure that the radical right and radical left do not take advantage of the situation to cause mayhem,” he told the public broadcaster France 2.

Sunday’s second round will determine whether Marine Le Pen’s far-right RN secures a parliamentary majority for the first time and forms the next government in France, the euro zone’s second-largest economy.

In the first round held last Sunday, Le Pen’s RN took 33% of the vote, followed by the socialist Nouveau Front Populaire party with 28%, while President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist bloc took just 20%.

A poll on Wednesday suggested efforts by mainstream parties to block the far right from reaching an absolute majority might work.

A Harris Interactive poll for Challenges magazine showed the anti-immigration, eurosceptic RN and its allies could win just 190 to 220 seats in the 577-strong assembly, while the center-right Republicans (LR) could win 30 to 50 seats. This would rule out the possibility of a far-right minority government supported by part of the LR parliamentary group.

The poll was published after more than 200 candidates across the political spectrum withdrew their candidacies to clear the path for whoever was best placed to defeat the RN candidate in their district, in a process known as the “republican front.”

However, much uncertainty remains, including whether voters will follow these efforts to block the RN.