If Eric Zemmour has slowed down in the polls since his declaration of candidacy in mid-November, the checks nevertheless continue to flow to his HQ in the 8th arrondissement in Paris. According to information from Europe 1, confirmed to Capital by the candidate’s team, Eric Zemmour has already garnered around 9 million euros, between donations paid to the association for financing his campaign and memberships to the Reconquest party, launched in early December.
In detail, the paid memberships (at the base price of 30 euros) of the 75,000 new activists of Eric Zemmour’s political movement brought in 3 million euros, while the donations for the campaign, the amounts of which may vary by a few tens of euros to 4,600 euros (the limit set by law for individuals) have made it possible to collect 6 million euros since September. According to Julien Madar, fundraising manager that Capital contacted, 20,000 supporters have already funded Eric Zemmour’s campaign. Among them, a third of large donors have paid checks of 1,000 euros and more.
“Many contributors to Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign in 2007, but also former financial supporters of Emmanuel Macron and François Fillon in 2017 have decided to help us”, welcomes Julien Madar, who specifies that Eric Zemmour wants to constitute a war chest “from 15 to 16 million euros” to finance his presidential campaign. A sum very close to the spending limit provided for by law for the first ballot (16.8 million euros). Will he be able to raise such an amount without calling on the banks? “So far, Eric Zemmour has not requested any bank loan and he has no plans to do so,” says the treasurer.
He could beat Emmanuel Macron
New to politics, Eric Zemmour is raising funds at a rate that makes most other presidential candidates green with envy. By way of comparison, Jean-Luc Mélenchon has raised only a little over 1 million euros since the launch of his fundraising, while the environmental candidate Yannick Jadot has raised a little less than 200,000 euros since mid-December, according to the letter a.
In the race for funding, only the President of the Republic seems able to compete with Eric Zemmour. Between April 2016 and the first round of the presidential election, April 23, 2017, the candidate of En Marche! had carried out a historic donation campaign for a presidential candidate, thanks in particular to a small fraction of wealthy benefactors. Total amount of money collected before the first round? 9.3 million euros.
With 6 million euros received, excluding memberships, over a period of approximately four months (September-December 2021), Eric Zemmour seems to be advancing at a higher rate than the Macron of 2016-2017. It remains to be seen whether he will be able to do better than his “record” of 9.3 million euros, as the first round approaches. As a reminder, during the last presidential election, the candidate of En Marche had spent a total amount of 16.8 million euros (donations and bank contribution combined) for the two ballots, as Le Figaro wrote in the time.
⋙ To read also – Valérie Pécresse surrounds herself with a “totally equal” team … really?
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