The official campaign for the European elections commenced Monday, with the actual vote taking place on June 7. France has put forth 161 candidate lists, still awaiting official confirmation.

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The French audiovisual advisory committee (French acronym: CSA) has called for a media blackout on election coverage on June 6 until voting is completed.

Candidates are allocated a fixed bloc of time for media coverage. Parties represented in the parliament get two hours, with unrepresented parties getting 20 minutes. The PRG, a French political party not represented on the European election lists, said it intends to use their 20 minutes to denounce the unfair “hegemony” on the part of the centre-right UMP and leftist PS parties.