Zemmour throws hat in ring for French presidency
JEWISH far-right media pundit Eric Zemmour announced on Tuesday that he will run for president in next year’s election, adding his controversial and fiercely anti-immigration voice to the field of challengers seeking to unseat President Emmanuel Macron.
Seen by critics as an unapologetic racist but admired by supporters as a champion of traditional French values, Zemmour surged in polls in recent months, though there have been signs this early momentum is starting to slow.
“I have decided to take our destiny in my hands. I have decided to run in the presidential election,” he said in a YouTube video heavy on anti-immigrant warnings and pledges to restore the country’s grandeur on the world stage.
“It is no longer the time to reform France, but to save it,” Zemmour said, claiming that many voters “no longer recognise [their] country”.
Zemmour, dubbed by some “France’s Trump”, is due to hold his first official campaign meeting on Sunday morning in Paris. Anti-fascists and unions have already pledged to hold a “Silence Zemmour” protest in the French capital.
With two convictions for hate speech, Zemmour, 63, made his name by warning about the “colonisation” of the country by Muslims, whose religion he views as “incompatible” with French values.
Though Jewish, he is not a popular figure in the community. While his far-right rhetoric has been denounced by communal leaders, he has also earned their ire for speaking out against wearing kippot in public, for claiming the Vichy regime, which collaborated with the Nazis, safeguarded French Jews from the Holocaust, and for saying Iran should not be denied nuclear weapons.
Opinion polls showed support for Zemmour surging in September and October, briefly making him the best-placed rival to Macron, but his popularity appears to have faded over the past month.
The latest survey put Zemmour third in the first round of voting at 14-to-15 per cent, according to research from the Ifop group published in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper on Sunday.
He trailed Macron on 25 per cent and Marine Le Pen on 19-20 per cent. With these scores, they would both advance to a second-round runoff that Macron would win if the vote were held now, the survey indicated.
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