A Blitz success has catapulted an unusual candidate into the centre of rightwing politics in France ahead of the April local elections. The extreme right Journalist Eric Zemmour declared his candidacy in a Youtube video this week. He seems capable of ousting Marie Le Pen as the leader of the right and even of challenging Emmanuel Macron.
At least I hope he is unusual as far as his background is concerned. The rising star is a 63-year-old Algerian Jew to the right of Le Pen, who has worked hard to moderate her National Rally, as her party has been renamed. Zemmour has been on TV and radio recently, raising his profile. Apparently, right-wingers approve of his message. It seems to boil down to fear of civil war, Muslims and their immigration coupled with the belief in the “replacement theory.” He pushes the idea of enclaves taken over by foreigners and talks of a clash between French Christian and Muslims’ values, calling the latter “colonisers”. He doesn’t think much of us females either, declaring we neither have the strength nor leadership qualities of males.
His statements made me shudder, even if I’m not a politician. The echo of those politicians in the past such as Germany’s ex-Führer and his belief Jews were his country’s misfortune or the well-known South African horror of the ‘swart gevaar’, black danger.
Zemmour is part of the move to the right, with key persons capitalising on the fear aroused by the pandemic Covid 19, its effect on economies globally as well as of the waves of immigration. Sadly, too little is done to dig out and resolve the core issues of the latter, no matter how hard this task is.