Zemmour competes with Le Pen
France’s right wing is vying for votes
2/6/2022 1:23 p.m
In France, Marine Le Pen is no longer the only presidential candidate chasing votes on the far right. Publicist Éric Zemmour competes with the Rassemblement National party – and strikes even more radical tones.
Right-wing politician Marine Le Pen and her far-right competitor Éric Zemmour fought a long-distance duel a good two months before the French presidential elections. The two contenders for the office of head of state each appeared in front of thousands of supporters in northern France at the weekend and swore them to the decisive phase of the election campaign with radical statements. On April 10th and 24th, the next president will be elected in France.
The speeches, which followed each other in quick succession, were seen in the French media as the first more or less direct showdown between the two candidates. For a long time, Le Pen was the well-known face of the right-wing camp and was considered its only serious contender for the highest office in the state. But since the announcement of his candidacy in November, the publicist Zemmour Le Pen, who has been convicted several times for racist statements, has been causing difficulties. He addresses similar issues with even more radical rhetoric and courts the same constituency.
He has also poached several heads of their Rassemblement National party and was recently tied with Le Pen in a poll. In his speech on Saturday in Lille, he railed against the “major population exchange” allegedly financed by France and involving a massive Islamization of the country. As an example, Zemmour cited the northern French city of Roubaix, which he described as “Afghanistan two hours from Paris”. He meticulously calculated how much public money would flow to foreigners, which in turn would then be lacking for urgently needed new prison places. As president, he would abolish social benefits for foreigners, only grant asylum to a few dozen people a year and reduce the tax burden for the French.
According to the prefecture, around 1,100 people protested against Zemmour’s appearance in Lille. Le Pen, who is running for the presidency for the third time, used similar tones in her speech. She wants to protect the French from an “immigrant flood”. President Emmanuel Macron has run down the country financially, contributed to the division of society and is arrogant and depressing. Zemmour didn’t mention her. On Sunday, the meeting in Reims continued privately.
A poll saw Zemmour tied with Le Pen for the first ballot with 14 percent of the vote, just behind conservative Valérie Pécresse (16.5 percent) and far behind incumbent Macron (24 percent). His candidacy is considered certain, even if he has not yet officially announced it. If, as usual, none of the presidential candidates achieve the necessary absolute majority of votes in the first ballot, the two most successful candidates move into a runoff two weeks later.