French political rivalries spill onto soccer field ahead of lawmaker charity match

FILE PHOTO: Marine Le Pen, member of parliament and president of the French far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National - RN) party parliamentary group gives a news conference at the National Assembly in Paris, France, August 2, 2022. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

PARIS (Reuters) - Deep divisions running through France's National Assembly spilled out onto the soccer pitch on Wednesday, with leftwing lawmakers refusing to play alongside colleagues from the far-right at an annual charity match.

After Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National party won a record number of seats in elections in June, lawmakers from the centre-left and hard left decried what they called the "normalisation" of the far right.