Asked to respond to Emmanuel Macron’s comments on the risk of “civil war” if the “extreme” parties win in the upcoming snap parliamentary elections, the president of the Reconquête party, Éric Zemmour, responded on Franceinfo with “a little ironic smile.”
The far-right politician and polemicist said that he has been using this term “for a very long time.”
Zemmour: “You’re inevitably heading for civil war”
“When you have two populaces setting up on the same soil, you’re inevitably heading for civil war. These “two populaces” being “the French and the Islamo-leftist people led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon,” asserted Éric Zemmour.
“We are on the road to destruction,” he continued, pointing to “deep fundamental problems, which are the emergence of two populaces on the same soil.” “The new Popular Front is simply the political and personal incarnation of this new Islamo-leftist people,” he stressed.
For the 2022 far-right and pro-Russian presidential candidate, “confrontation is inevitable if we don’t stop this crazy immigration” by returning to “physical borders.”.
French President Emmanuel Macron stated that the programs of the far-right Rassemblement National and the far-left Nouveau Front Populaire lead “to civil war,” he said in the Génération Do It Yourself podcast broadcast on June 24.
Zemmour’s pro-Russian views
Eric Zemmour is a French journalist, writer, and political commentator known for his controversial views on immigration, Islam, and pro-Putin statements. Eric Zemmour advocated for Russia, criticized Ukraine, portrayed himself as an admirer of Putin, and asserted that France needed a “French Putin.”
Speaking to the media, Eric Zemmour declared that “Ukraine is dead.” He asserted that Russia was under siege by NATO. After the Russians invaded Ukraine in February 2022, he failed to blame Moscow and Putin for the war.
Zemmour’s Reconquête party
Founded less than three years ago, its Reconquête party won five seats in the European Parliament at the June elections. The list led by Marion Maréchal, Marine Le Pen’s niece, passed the key 5% threshold (5.47%) in the European elections, which was Zemmour’s party’s primary objective.
However, on June 12, the party expelled Maréchal for encouraging voters to support RN candidates (her aunt’s party) in the 2024 snap legislative election. Her support led to the expulsion of three other party MEPs, leaving the party with only one MEP.
Reconquête says it aims to avoid what it calls the “Great Replacement” of the French people (with the migrants form other continents), considered as a conspiracy theory by many. Zemmour promised to “slash immigration to almost zero,” deport people who failed to seek asylum and illegal immigrants, and remove France from NATO’s integrated command.
In foreign policy, the party seeks to strengthen French fiscal and political autonomy against the European Union. Zemmour expressed his support for Brexit, but argued that France’s situation was different and he would not seek to withdraw France from the EU.
Who is Eric Zemmour?
Eric Zemmour began his journalistic career in the 1980s, working for various French newspapers and magazines. He gained national attention in 2006 with the publication of his book “Le Suicide français” (“The French Suicide”), which argued that the decline of French culture and identity was due to immigration and multiculturalism.
Zemmour’s views on these issues have made him a polarizing figure in French politics, with many people criticizing him as a racist and xenophobe. Zemmour is known for disgraceful statements about Islam and migration. A French court found him guilty of racist insults and inciting racial hatred, and he was sentenced to a fine.
Zemmour was linked to Moscow through his appearances on RT (formerly Russia Today), a Russian state-owned propaganda media. He defended his appearances on RT, arguing that he is simply seeking to reach a wider audience.
Eric Zemmour, a far-right presidential candidate in France in the 2022 election, suffered a severe decline in support after making several distasteful remarks about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and constantly expressing appreciation and affection for Putin.
Eric Zemmour proclaimed, “We need a French Putin.” And he paid the price for honoring Putin by seeing a sharp decline in voters’ support. In the French presidential election in May 2022, Zemmour was defeated in the first round. After Putin launched a war against Ukraine, Zemmour’s rating plunged from 15 to 7%. For the second round, he supported Marine Le Pen, another far-right leader with a history of Russian ties.
In the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Zemmour has continued to push narratives that benefit Moscow, oppose aid to Ukraine, and criticize sanctions against Russia. Despite this, his popularity didn’t decline further.
