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He is not even officially a candidate for the French presidency, but political expert Eric Zemmour should already collect 13% in the first round, if he runs. Convicted twice for hate speech, the sharp-tongued journalist and writer climbs high on an anti-immigration platform, fueled by a media frenzy unprecedented since Emmanuel Macron declared his candidacy in 2016.
A Harris Interactive poll published this week places Zemmour just three points from Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally, who is set to face Macron in the second round of the presidential election next April.
Openly anti-immigration and anti-Islam, Zemmour recently declared that he preferred to force people to give their children French names because “to call your child Mohamed is to colonize France”.
President Macron referred to Zemmour for the first time on Tuesday, but not by name.
“We often ask the question of identity in political debates,” Macron said, “but our identity was never built on shrinking [things down], first names or forms of tension. “
Macron and Zemmour don’t have much in common except that neither of them have officially taken their hats off in the ring, and both know how to create a huge media buzz.
Zemmour’s piercing gaze emerges from numerous newsstands, most recently on the cover of Paris Match, bathing in the Mediterranean with her young “advisor”.
In the space of a week, he participated in a dramatic debate on BFMTV and another on LCI, as well as interviews on Paris Première and Europe 1 among other media. And the presidential elections are still seven months away.
So how did Zemmour get here?
Journalist, writer
Zemmour, 63, was born in the Paris suburbs into a family of Berber Jews who came to France during the Franco-Algerian war of 1954-62.
After failing to enter the elite School of Administration (ENA), he moved on to journalism and until recently was a regular columnist for the conservative daily Le Figaro.
He turned out to be a successful writer. His 2014 book French suicide (French Suicide: 40 Years Who Defeated France) argued that neoliberalism had sent France into decline. It has become a bestseller.
His latest self-published essay France has not said its last word (France has not said its last word) reportedly sold 78,000 copies in its first week.
Zemmour’s reputation as France’s most famous right-wing ideologue owes a lot to his regular appearances on CNews, an American Fox News-like television station that supported Donald Trump. He was an everyday star Facing the info (Facing the news) debate, which peaks at over a million viewers.
Polemicist
The show allowed Zemmour to explore some of his favorite themes such as immigration, Islam and French identity.
He is in favor of the abolition of the right to French nationality by birth on French soil and the restriction of certain state benefits to French citizens. He promotes the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory which claims that white Europeans are being replaced by immigrants.
Zemmour has been convicted twice for racial and religious hate speech.
In 2010 he said that “most drug traffickers are black and Arab” and in 2019 he compared Muslims in France to “colonizers”.
He also called for the expulsion of two million foreigners from France, including students from the African continent.
On September 13, he resigned from the Facing the info show, giving perhaps the clearest sign to date that he may be preparing to announce his candidacy for the election.
It came after the French audiovisual watchdog (CSA) judged Zemmour more of a politician than a journalist – meaning his media appearances must now be limited, as they are for many. other political figures during election periods.
Shift to the right
While the French government has criticized Zemmour’s views, it seems to respond to the “Z” factor by shifting its own policies further to the right.
On Tuesday, the government announced a drastic reduction in the number of visas that France would grant to Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco after refusing to take back nationals whose visa applications had been refused by France.
Home Secretary Gerald Darmanin on Wednesday announced that the government had shut down mosques and associations he said were controlled by radical Islamists.
Divide the vote
The dominant right is also struggling not to keep pace with Zemmour’s drum.
Former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, a center-right Republican (LR) presidential candidate, raised his eyebrows when he recently called for a three to five year moratorium on immigration.
The person who in theory has the most to lose if Zemmour continues to rise is the far-right personality Marine Le Pen. Fighting mass immigration and radical Islam has so far been her bag – and held her high in the polls.
This week, she called for a referendum on citizenship, identity and immigration control.
Zemmour says Le Pen poses no threat. “Marine Le Pen will never win, and everyone at the National Rally knows it,” he said on France 2 television.
Rejection
Zemmour may be overconfident. He has little political experience, has never been elected and has no party behind him.
In addition, he remains a deeply controversial figure among the French public as a whole.
A poll published Wednesday by Odoxa-LCP-Public Senate revealed that he was the most rejected political figure (59%), ahead of far-right Florian Philippot (55%), far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon (54 %) and Marine. Le Pen (52 percent).
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