Si add those who knew him to Paris Daily, to Figaro, To Marianne, at RTL, i-Télé or CNews, Eric Zemmour has former colleagues in almost all the newsrooms in Paris. A new category of journalists has emerged: those who studied with Zemmour. These former colleagues are often the only ones who remember that before his career as a media polemicist and slayer of the press and the media, he himself was for a very long time a political journalist at the Figaro.
Eric Zemmour also recalls in his book that in 2020 he still held the press card (it was useful for him to walk around Paris during confinement) but berates journalists at each public intervention. The stories of dozens of lunches populate his work. To read it, one would think that, for fifteen years, politicians have flocked to his table to exchange equals, compare points of view and strategies, leaving the impression that, politically, he weighs as much or more than those who summon him.
Eric Zemmour’s goal? Show that it is frequentable since everyone has frequented it. From where this procession of commensals which haunts the pages of its paving stone. Only ministers, deputies and fellow journalists know that these lunches are the daily life of political “rubricards”. Who, suddenly, are responsible for following the strange career of their colleague, going from: “But no, he makes noise to sell books” To “Well, anyway, if he’s in the second round, he won’t pass. “
How do we recognize them?
Between the documentaries, books and articles that are being prepared on him, with the suspense he maintains on his presidential candidacy, here they are likely to become sources for all these portraits. Some remember him as an outright chivalist, others as a seguinist, a Gaullist and even a balladurian. They are surprised to find, reading his book, that all those with whom he has lunch agree with him, especially those who died before publication.
The former colleagues who, from the 1990s, met him at the summer universities of the UDF when he hung out with the gang of François Léotard and Alain Madelin keep in mind his flood of words, his birthday candles on the 31st. August, his jokes in the press room, his cronyism with politicians, and wonder how he came to be the anti-establishment.
How they talk
“I remember when we looked for someone to say ‘no’ in the European referendum debates, we thought of him, but Aphatie didn’t agree. “” I was offered to make a TV to compare Trump and Zemmour, I refused. “” I’m not sure he is mastering himself as much as he claims to be. “ “At Le Figaro, he didn’t share anything with anyone, except his office with Ivan Rioufol. “ “He’s not rude at all. He’s smelly, but charming. “Sitting next to him during a Sarkozy press conference, I had the impression that he was commenting on the match. “” He’s never led any team, not even himself. “ “I already didn’t like him as a journalist, so in politics…” “We never saw him in an editorial conference. “ “Ten years ago, he could still take the metro. “ “He was not at all fighting against political speech. “ “Fortunately, I never had lunch with him. ”
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