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Lucy Williamson, a BBC reporter on assignment in the southern French town Béziérs, was surprised when she observed about a hundred people lined up in front of the auditorium where a “polémiste réactionaire” (Le Temps, September 24, 2021), was scheduled to speak. They waited and waited -no more seats. “Not bad for a man, who has not declared his candidacy yet”, noted the BBC-journalist. (October 19, 2021). The show was for free, and a show it was. Politics removed from political science, replaced by populism, a touch, at times an overdose, of racism when Eric Zemmour is provoking, insulting, debating or speaking, as in Béziers, about those “un- French” persons involved in the education system,” infiltrated by Marxism, anti-racism and LGBT ideologies, paid with your taxes, they constantly spit on you, they spit on the history of France and culture, and they spit on the French people, whom they want to disappear”.
Replaced by color, the primitive, invading culture, only a question of time when the white race is forever buried, the so called “great replacement theory, the notion, as “Al Jazeera” explained (October, 13, 2021) “also held by white supremacists in the US, that Western populations are being “replaced” by immigrants.” The former Le Figaro columnist has faced court many times for hate speech considered racist, Islamophobic, sexist, homophobic. His excuse: ”I am here to defend ideas, because I believe France could die.” At his latest court date, in Paris, Zemmour was accused (November 17 ,2021, LeParisien), of “public insult” and “incitement to hatred or violence”-in September 2020, the then still commentator on the right wing C-News channel, had spoken about unaccompanied migrant minors from Arab countries, stating, “they’re thieves, they are murderers, they’re rapists. That’s all they are. We must send them back. These people cost us money.” The accused did not show up for trial; he could be sentenced with up to a year in jail and a 45 OOO Euro fine. Usually though this verbal acrobat has been acquitted-freedom of speech.
The court date in Paris was one of those days- a provocateur, characterized by former, socialist Presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon as “danger for our nation and racist” defending outrages opinions. In Béziers he was the adored messenger of doom, the savior, as Hitler was, and Trump. “If the language was violent, it wasn’t unexpected. Many in the audience know the orator, from his role as an outspoken TV presenter and commentator for “C-News”, explained Mrs Williamson, who confirmed that” Eric Zemmour is shaking up France’s Presidential race before it even began.” EuroNews (November 31, 2021) noted how Zemmour’s frequent TV appearances and polarizing views have ”caused a media frenzy.” Alexander Durie reports in Al Jazeera (October 13 ,2021) “that much of the French media is not focused on Macron’s chances of becoming the first president to be re-elected since Jacques Chirac in 2002, but ”rather on the rise of the far right.” And whoever these days in gloomy, enervated France, is mentioning ”far right”, means one man, who is adored by several million French citizen, and equally loathed and rejected by as many- Eric Zemmour, 63, is probably the most famous and wealthiest journalist of France , a successful author, whose last book “La France n’a pas dit son dernier mot”( France hasn’t had its last word”), did sell more than 200 000 copies .
Zemmour has long been a household name famed for his provocations on Islam, immigration and women. On April 10, 2022 the novice of government, a candidate without party, will tempt history. He declared his candidacy officially on the last Tuesday of November 2021—nine minutes on a YouTube video, sitting on an old-fashioned desk and an equally old microphone, suggesting to be the second liberator of France, following the greatest of them all Charles de Gaulle. Will there be spring time in Paris? The united right of la Grande Nation, led by Zemmour, move into power? The prophecy of tea leaves? Probably. Yet, a Harris Interactive opinion poll (December 6, 2021) placed Zemmour (14 percent), Marine Le Pen (18 percent), leader of the former “National Front”, now the National Rally. Emmanuel Macron, for now, remains favorite, supported by 23 percent of the electorate. One third of French voters’ plan to give their votes to the two right wing candidates. Add some deflated ”Les Republicains”, or remnants of the mauled Socialists Party, frustrated citizen, overcome with je- m’- en- foutism, and French history could be written by a “union de droits”, creating -a political earthquake in Europe. A racist elected President, not the first in history (Donald Trump is a living example) an intellectual, who should, reflecting on his own family history, be more sensitive and understanding towards the misery of migrants, the dramatic fate of displaced people: “While his poll numbers have started to slide”, noted the New York Times (December 2, 2021) ”from their highs earlier this fall Mr. Zemmour’s divisive campaign has resonated with a significant portion of voters and he is still among the leading candidates. He is capturing national headlines and unleashing vicious bigotry into the mainstream in a way unseen in years.”
The Jewish family of Eric Zemmour moved from war torn Algeria to France during the 1954-1962- Algerian war; he is married, for 39 years, to Mylene Chicportich, 59, mother of three children and lawyer specialized in bankruptcy law. Her Jewish ancestors migrated from Tunisia. Recently Zemmour, innocent or careless, was photographed with Sarah Kafo, 28, a ENA -graduate, assigned as magistrate at the “Cour des Comptes”, taking a bath with her in the Mediterranean, near the beach of Seyne sur Mer. Paris Match, veraciously fascinated by glamour and gossip, splashed the swan like couple on its cover (September, 23, 2021) accompanied by his ”tres proche conseillere”, as Paris Match clarified on its cover. Just a footnote, but Sarah Kafo’s Jewish family moved from Morocco to France.
Zemmour, not shy when insulting women, went to court, filing a complaint for invasion of privacy. Possibly the intimate photo was staged, reflected Libération (September 22, 2021), trying to “humanize Zemmour’s image, which is that of a misogynist”. Even accusations by seven women though, for sexual harassment (Al Jazeera, October 13, 2021), did not dampen the enthusiasm of his followers; a kind of Donald Trump phenomenon. Mind you, even religious moralists forgave the US President his sexual dromomania, his Melanie as well, since it is pleasant to travel on Air Force One, able to take a bath near the moon and get a manicure close to the stars. Zemmour’s fans, millions, and growing, do not mind his extreme thoughts and writings, his verbal outbursts, pleading that French parent should chose “French names” for their newly born. The place of Islam in France is one of his Leitmotiv’s, convinced, as he confirmed in a TV debate with Mélenchon, watched by 3.8 million people, that” Islam is a civilization incompatible with the principles of France.” (September 23, BFMTV). Three days after this statement, he added, on “Europe 1”, “we must frenchise the practice of Islam.”
Far right firebrand
Zemmour, the controversialist, has even convinced 93 years old, seasoned, racist, who with his rightwing, radical party moved France back to nationalistic, xenophobic temptations: Jean Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front, who years ago declared the gas chambers used to kill Jews, were “mere details” of history, and the Nazi occupation “not particularly inhumane”. Le Pen was sentenced for contesting crimes against humanity, but he has not given up his convictions tainted by ignorance or revisionist falsifications. Eric is his kind of man, despite the fact, that his own daughter Marine might, on the first election day, 10 April 2022, be defeated by Zemmour, who was introduced by Vanity Fair (November, 20, 2021) to the American public as ”a new French Donald Trump”, a” far-Right Firebrand.”
In an interview with Le Monde (October 2, 2021) Le Pen insisted: “The only difference between Eric and myself is that he is Jewish.” And that fact alone could help him. His background would make it a lot more difficult to accuse him of being a Nazi or fascist, argued Le Pen. Jean-Yves Camus, director of the Observatory of Radical Politics at the Jean Jaures Foundation, sees Eric Zemmour not as fascist, but radical right, noting that Zemmour as an individual, has never campaigned on the far right, and he never was a member of Le Pen’s National Front. The real question is whether Zemmour’s rise in the polls is a media bubble”, said Camus,” which is linked to his overexposure-an overexposure which is likely to continue- or if it is a real, deep phenomenon which sees Marine Le Pen losing voters due to a fatigue after her party’s repeatedly failed to conquer power.” There seems to be no doubt that France, shaken by an almost eternal Covid 19 attack, economic depression and social malaise, is moving towards radical salvation and illusions.
The mainstream right and the Socialist Party, concludes Michele Barbero in “Foreign Policy” (November 10, 2021) “dominated French politics for over half a century. But as the 2022 presidential campaign kicks into high gear, they are in unprecedented trouble and they could both implode with a lackluster showing next year. The meltdown risks upending the political future of a country that has long relied on a stable political center to put up eventual guardrails against extremist parties, especially from the far right”. The guardrails are rusty, a robust, determined illusionist named Eric Zemmour is ready to Make France Great again.
