The candidate “Reconquest!” Eric Zemmour gave his last campaign rally on Thursday April 7 at the Dôme de Paris, in front of 5,000 people. Baptized “meeting for young people”, the atmosphere was gloomy three days before the first round.
The mines are tired, the voices rusty from the cries, the belching, the slogans chanted at the top of their voices: the young people have given everything. For not much? In any case, this is what the activists present in the room think. Thomas and Dylan, inhabitants of Seine-et-Marne, in their early twenties, are among those who will favor the “useful vote” on Sunday. The two friends knew Eric Zemmour “by watching him on CNews for two years” says the first, “thanks to Pascal Praud’s show” adds the second. Dylan is the most pragmatic: “I think to vote Marine in the first round, what a useful vote. Marine Le Pen will take more votes. Zemmour remains on his ideas and so much the better, but that does not include the majority of voters. And then she can move on to the second round. Thomas believes in “the hidden vote”, wants to regain “France’s sovereignty, through nuclear power for example”, but says he is influenced by “the polls which complicate things”.
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In the spans, many young people came with their darlings: a Valentine’s Day in the middle of April, the sign “Well let’s see! their bouquet of roses. Women are the most determined. They don’t hesitate to get up, howl, boo, yell at those who don’t want to show themselves too much; one of them will remain standing throughout the meeting. A nightclub heat floods the Dome, perspiration mixed with humidity.
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Marcel, who came from Switzerland “as an observer”, does not mince his words: “Zemmour is a demagogue. He’s a good journalist, but not a serious politician. It’s clearly the extreme right, it’s a racist, but it will never pass. No, frankly I was expecting more success tonight. “Thierry, from Ile-de-France, joined him, the speeches of the former journalist, after having” voted Macron in 2017 “. If he tries to hide his discomfort in this room which is struggling to fill up, he ends up dropping the mask: “I want to vote Zemmour to find France. But I don’t know if it will pass… I’m thinking of moving abroad. »
A quiz with the public
Then comes Éric Zemmour’s team on stage. Olivier Ubéda, helmet screwed on the head tries to warm the public, then it is Hilaire Bouyé, former of the UNI, who organizes a quiz with the public. Among the questions: “How much is the RN’s debt estimated? » ; “What was sung in Mayotte before Marine Le Pen’s meeting? » ; “For Marine Le Pen, SFR sells? (The answer: “She doesn’t know, she doesn’t prepare her files”). Tonight’s target is not “Emmanuel McKinsey” according to Philippe de Villiers, but the head of the RN.
The lieutenants and right arms then follow one another on the podium. Margaux Taillefer, ex-UNI, “militated for François Fillon” – boos and whistles -, and joined Zemmour seeing “the cowardice of other LR executives”. Gilbert Collard celebrates youth in a video to cheers, Jérôme Rivière refuses that France is “a province of the EU and a vassal of the United States”, Nicolas Bay makes ten sentences.
Zemmour attacked Macron’s five-year term
Guillaume Peltier, in poetic mode, opens his speech by explaining to the young people that they are the “children of Philippe de Villiers” then rushes in by comparing the youth present with that of the “young conscripts of 1914”, “the children of the Resistance “. Marion Maréchal, under “Marion I love you!” “, smashes wokism and pays tribute to the great replacement. Then comes Philippe de Villiers, tired – “We are exhausted and if you force me to push my voice I will be speechless” -, sometimes gets annoyed by shouting in the room. He castigates the antifas, the “scum”, and says that Zemmour “will remain in history”. Éric Zemmour finally takes over and speaks for more than an hour. He attacks the Macron five-year term, the “old parties and the jealous and outdated media next to us” and explains that he understands the spirit of revenge of young people against the government.
The speech, hackneyed, as too much said, too repeated, ends up tiring some activists in the audience, who say to themselves, in low mass: “How long did he speak? »