Who is Éric Zemmour and how could he revolutionise French politics?

Political newcomer, Éric Zemmour, could shake up the French Presidential race for the Élysée Palace with his newfound popularity. (Image credits: Remi Mathis via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons License)

In the past few weeks, the French media has been abuzz with a new phenomenon. That phenomenon being Éric Zemmour, a far-right political commentator who is tipped to run for the Presidency and, in doing so, shake up the 2022 election and, potentially, the entire political landscape of France. 

Dubbed the French answer to Trump, Éric Zemmour is well-renowned for his far-right, hyper-controversial views on virtually every topic of debate in France. He is accused of being an anti-semite, racist, xenophobe and misogynist and has been convicted of inciting racial hatred and hate crimes against Muslims. He has branded the Vichy Government of France as being charitable towards Jews during the Second World War, he has called for the name Mohammed to be banned and believes that the French education system has been infiltrated by Marxist and “woke” propaganda. Yet, two polls now show Zemmour beating Marine Le Pen in 2022, making him Macron’s biggest rival. 

Éric Zemmour, a political commentator and author, in some polls is on track to beat Marine Le Pen to the second round of the 2022 Presidential election, making him Macron’s biggest competition. (Image credits: Esby via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons License)

Zemmour is the son of Algerian-Jewish immigrants who left Algeria for France during the Civil War. Once in France, he was raised by his mother and grandmother in the poor Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis. He worked hard in school and managed to forge his way into the media industry as a journalist. He spent time writing for local newspapers until he eventually moved to Le Figaro and its magazine. Since then, and for many years, he has been a lead anchor on right-wing news channel, C-News, and has built himself a reputation for controversy. 

He has written a selection of political works of non-fiction, notably French Suicide, which was published in 2014 and analysed France’s political and social changes of the 1970s through to the 2010s. Zemmour argued how these changes, namely the influx of migration into France, led the country to the brink of suicide. In his writing, he often perpetuates the theory of the “Great Replacement” – a scaremongering projection that predicts Europe will soon be overrun by non-Christians from Africa and Asia. Throughout his entire career he has branded himself as a truth-exposer, fighting against the corrupt French media that “spits on French history and culture and spits on the French people”. 

Currently, he is touring France to promote his new book, France has not said its last word, which sold over 80,000 copies in the first three days after publication. Last week, he had a tour date in Béziers, a south-western town, to which hundreds of people showed up, filling the auditorium and leaving surplus guests pouring out onto the street. There, he expanded on some of his radical policies. The BBC were at the rally and spoke to a handful of the guests after the event. They discovered that among the crowd were both former Républicain voters, former Rassemblement national voters and former Macron voters. It seems that Zemmour is attracting supporters from all sides of the political spectrum with his intellectual-Trumpist approach. He is certainly the current “curiosity candidate” and with his dominating presence in the French press (he has made more TV and front-page appearances than any other candidate so far), he is quickly becoming a household name and a serious candidate for the Presidency with a serious fanbase that cannot be overlooked. 

Zemmour is yet another symptom of change in France. He embodies the split away from traditional parties in favour of the often radical fringes. And his policies that are reactionary economic, socially conservative and eurosceptic are successful in uniting the Catholic bourgeoisie and the lower working classes of France, yet another piece of evidence pointing to a growing anti-establishment, protectionist and nationalist rhetoric that is becoming more widespread across the country. 

Although it may seem that Zemmour is on a strong course to be a Presidential candidate (even though he has not yet declared his candidacy), he could also completely disrupt the right-wing vote and ruin their chance of victory in the second round. He seems to have already poached voters from Le Pen, but she will certainly remain popular, despite her poor showings in recent regional elections. His stealing of voters could hence be detrimental to her campaign, allowing Macron to increase his gains. Some pundits on the right are calling for a coalition between Le Pen and Zemmour, something Le Pen will likely view as a step in the wrong direction after tirelessly working to remove her party from the xenophobic narrative of Zemmour and his followers. 

His candidacy could also be detrimental to Les Républicains who are vying to reestablish their influence. Currently they are without a candidate, and will remain that way until early December, making their counterattacks seem futile and disorganised. On top of mounting accusations of corruption within the party, sparked by Sarkozy’s sentencing in the Bygmalion scandal, Les Républcains and their frontrunners are struggling to build a united front against this assault on their fanbase. 

Macron, on a superficial level, need not be worried. A division of voters on the far-right will clear his path to reelection, easing any anxieties about potential losses following steadily declining popularity ratings. Yet, if he does indeed care about the protection of French democracy and tolerance as much as he professes, he and his party will assuredly be feeling the pressure to overcome these many threats. He ought to be wary of an increasingly volatile political environment that shows the growing discontent among his citizens. 

Seen as a true man of the people, a self proclaimed Gaullist and Bonapartist, Zemmour has promised he will be France’s protector. It is unknown if this huge spike in popularity is purely momentary or if it will sustain itself into 2022. One thing for certain is that, for now, his momentum is not slowing. He is swamping the political airwaves with aggressive yet clear messages that engage voters and create ripples along the political spectrum.