Zemmour pledges to ‘reconquer’ France
HARD-RIGHT presidential candidate Eric Zemmour yesterday suffered an injured wrist during his first political rally as his supporters beat up antiracism activists who had come to disrupt the event.
Video footage from the event showed a member of the crowd jumping at Mr Zemmour and briefly placing him in a headlock as he waded through swarms of people.
The 63-year-old author and television commentator was injured as he made his way to the stage at a giant exhibition centre north-east of Paris on Sunday afternoon, an aide told the Associated Foreign Press.
In an hour-and-a-half long speech to an estimated 10,000 people, Mr Zemmour promised to “reconquer” France as he set out his vision for “zero immigration” and launched salvos against the Left and mainstream media.
Addressing the crowd, Mr Zemmour said: “If I win this election, it won’t be another rotation of power but a reconquest of the greatest country in the world. Join us.”
He said he was calling his party “Reconquest”, a name that evokes the Reconquista period, when Christian forces drove Muslim rulers from the Iberian peninsula.
“From the first week of my mandate, zero immigration will become a clear objective of our policy,” said Mr Zemmour, who has been described as the French version of Donald Trump.
During his 90-minute speech, about a dozen activists rose to their feet shouting “No to racism”, prompting the crowd to throw punches and furniture, images showed.
“In a few seconds, chairs were thrown, activists put to the ground and beaten up. They ended up with open wounds – for at least two of them – while others took blows,” said Dominique Sopo, president of the French campaign group SOS Racisme.
Several other activists were attacked and dragged out of the room, and the scuffles between anti-racism activists and security guards continued outside the exhibition centre.
Reporters from a French TV show covering politics were booed and insulted by Mr Zemmour’s supporters ahead of his speech, leading them to be briefly escorted outside the room by security guards. They came back soon afterwards but Mr Zemmour harshly criticised the media in his speech.
“They snoop into my private life, call me all sorts of names... My adversaries want my political death, journalists want my social death and jihadists want my death,” he said.
Mr Zemmour, who has previously been convicted for inciting racial hatred, is the main challenger to Marine Le Pen for a place in a second round run-off for next April’s general election.
Known for provocative statements against Islam and immigration, he has won support away from both Le Pen’s far-right voter base but also the mainstream conservative Right.
To rounds of applause, Mr Zemmour outlined a raft of anti-immigration proposals, including limiting the number of successful asylum seekers to a “handful” every year. He said he would eliminate family reunification programmes and unemployed foreigners after six months.
The rally was a chance for Mr Zemmour to regain momentum after stumbling in opinion polls following his dramatic entrance into French politics in September. Fans stood with flyers proclaiming an anti-immigrant candidacy “so that France remains French”.
“We’re hoping that by announcing his candidacy and with this meeting that it will relaunch him a bit,” Maxence Mike, a 22-year-old student said.
“There’s a malaise in France, a crisis of civilisations and security problems, and for now he’s the only one with the courage to pose these problems clearly,” Jacques Ohana, a 65-year-old surgeon, said, noting that like Mr Zemmour he had north African origins. As his supporters cheered and waved French flags in a northern suburb of the capital, thousands of others took to the streets of Paris to denounce his xenophobic platform.
At a smaller political rally, hard-left candidate Jean-luc Melenchon pushed back against the lurch to the Right, telling supporters: “No, France is not all about the far-right, France is also about social security, public health.”
Emmanuel Macron, who defeated Marine Le Pen in the 2017 presidential runoff, is expected to seek a second term in office but has yet to declare his candidacy.