ZEMMOUR. Eric Zemmour’s result in the first round of the presidential election will allow us to measure his political weight. Can he win his bet and qualify in the second round?
4:00 p.m. – The legislative elections after the presidential election for Eric Zemmour?
While he mainly made a reputation by commenting on the news on CNews for several years, Eric Zemmour announced at the microphone of France Inter that he would not become a political commentator once the campaign was over. No more continuous news channel. So how does he see the future? “On the morning of the 25th, I will be either President of the Republic or Leader of the Opposition. I will finally make this reconciliation of the rights that no one wants to do: neither Marine Le Pen nor Mrs. Pécresse,” he said. What imply a candidate for the legislative elections. According to Marianne, a constituency in the south-east would be targeted, where the far right is quite strong. Because in Paris, hypothesis initially envisaged, the chances of victories would be slim.
3:10 p.m. – For industries, Eric Zemmour promises tax cuts
Presenting himself as an ardent defender of French industry and in France, Eric Zemmour offers a whole battery of measures to encourage companies to stay in France. First, the far-right candidate promises a “massive” drop in production taxes with the abolition of the C3S, the CVAE and the CFE. He also explains that he wants to lower the corporate tax rate to 15% for companies making up to 300,000 euros in profits. Also, he wants to “encourage investment in French start-ups and SMEs” via a deduction of 50% of his investment from his tax on real estate wealth. A salvo of economic measures to which are added promises of favors for French industry.
2:24 p.m. – Éric Zemmour voted in Paris for the 2022 presidential election
Several candidates have already gone to the polls to participate in this 2022 presidential election. This is particularly the case for Éric Zemmour, leader of the “Reconquest” movement, who voted in an office in the 8th arrondissement of Paris (according to BFM TV).
13:45 – Reconquest, Eric Zemmour’s party emerged from the ground in a few weeks
He went even further than Emmanuel Macron in 2017. When he embarked on the 2022 presidential campaign, Eric Zemmour had no political apparatus at his side. Like the current head of state five years earlier. Except that Eric Zemmour is not a former minister and connoisseur of the mysteries of power. Propelled all the same to the forefront of the media scene through Vincent Bolloré via his television channel CNews, the former polemicist has launched a brand new political party, classified on the far right called Reconquest. Between the beginning of December, during the launch, and the end of the presidential campaign, this new political family would have collected 130,000 memberships according to official figures. If Eric Zemmour is obviously at the head, Gilbert Collard is the honorary president, Nicolas Bay, Guillaume Peltier and Jérôme Rivière having obtained the status of vice-president.
12:28 – Eric Zemmour wants to ignore European laws and the Constitutional Council
Very critical of the European Union, Eric Zemmour has always said during his campaign that he wants to restore national sovereignty to France, which would take over decisions from Brussels. Thus, in his program, the Reconquest candidate wants “to establish the superiority of new national laws over any previous international text and over any derivative act”, via a modification of article 55 of the Constitution which indicates that “treaties or agreements regularly ratified or approved have, from their publication, an authority superior to that of laws, subject, for each agreement or treaty, to its application by the other party.
Moreover, Eric Zemmour did not fail to scratch the Constitutional Council. He wishes to ignore the decisions of the “Wise Men” by allowing Parliament to have the last word in the event of the unconstitutionality of a law, by a vote of Parliament meeting in Congress, by a majority of 3/5ths.
11:52 – Eric Zemmour and the fight against domestic violence
Eric Zemmour devotes a section of his program to domestic and sexual violence against women. To fight against this phenomenon, the former polemicist wants to set up minimum sentences for any crime and misdemeanor relating to it, resulting de facto in the wearing of an anti-reconciliation bracelet at the end of the prison sentence and a deportation of foreign and dual national criminals and sex offenders. Eric Zemmour also announces that he wants to create permanent lawyers in police stations to assist victims or open more places in accommodation centers for victims of domestic violence.
10:38 – How does Eric Zemmour want to “defend the vital interests” of France against the European Union?
Very vindictive against the European Union, Eric Zemmour proposes several measures to “defend our vital interests in Europe”. The far-right candidate notably wishes to “take back control of our borders and our migration policy”. But more than immigration, it intends above all to protect French companies. Eric Zemmour promises to “favor our companies by demanding the establishment, within two years, of a European public order mechanism allowing each State to reserve a share for its national companies” and by opposing a right of veto to any new free trade treaty.
09:24 – Measures to cajole motorists
In his program, Eric Zemmour says he wants to “remove the excessive constraints that weigh on motorists.” In the viewfinder of the far-right candidate, the license points, in particular, which he intends to remove while wanting to “fight more severely against real speeders”. The pretender to the Elysée promises to restore the 90km / h on all national and departmental and 50km / h in town, while removing the ZFE wherever they have been established. On the portfolio side, he wants to bring into force the reimbursement, by companies, of 50% of fuel costs (capped at 40 euros per month), limit parking fines to 17 euros and extend the period of validity of the technical control to three years.
08:11 – Two debates between Eric Zemmour and Jean-Luc Mélenchon
If there was no debate between all the candidates for the presidential election before the first round of the ballot, Eric Zemmour still debated twice against Jean-Luc Mélenchon. First at the end of September, on BFM TV, when the polemicist was not yet officially in the race for the Elysée. The two men had then long debated their opposing visions of France. A pass of arms followed by 3.81 million viewers.
The duo met a few months later, at the end of January, on the set of Cyril Hanouna, on C8, this time both in the costume of a competitor in the presidential election. As in September, the exchanges had been tough and the characters irreconcilable. Jean-Luc Mélenchon even got carried away. “To the niche!”, he had launched to his adversary.
07:04 – How does Eric Zemmour want to transform education, from primary to high school?
Eric Zemmour also has everything on the program for the school. First of all, he wants to replace the Ministry of National Education with a State Ministry of Knowledge and Transmission, bringing together Public Instruction, Higher Education and Culture. An organization which would be at the base of a teaching centered on the fundamentals in primary school (reading, writing, counting), a level which would conclude with the establishment of a Certificate of completion. He also wants to raise the level of the patent and the baccalaureate, while ending the single college and restoring the S, ES and L streams.
06:15 – Salaries and bonuses: what Eric Zemmour expects
Eric Zemmour announced several measures in his program to allow “to restore purchasing power to all French people”. He wants to increase annual salaries by the equivalent of a 13th month with a reduction in CSG on a sliding scale for salaries between the minimum wage and 2,000 euros. He wants to allow bosses to grant a free bonus of up to three times the net monthly salary, but also to exempt the participation bonus from tax and authorize its immediate release without tax. So many measures that he intends to finance, in particular, by the “abolition of non-contributory social assistance for non-European foreigners (family allowances, RSA, housing assistance, minimum old age).”
05:31 – Eric Zemmour rallied by several former RN executives
Éric Zemmour’s campaign was under the sign of rallying. The highlight: the meeting in Toulon, on Sunday March 6, 2022, rich in support torn from her rival, Marine le Pen. Defection from the RN was the trend at the start of 2022, with, as a striking departure, that of Gilbert Collard, European deputy from the RN oy Stéphane Ravier, RN senator from Bouches-du-Rhône, who also abandoned his party for the far-right polemicist. The most symbolic moment of the meeting was the announcement of the official rallying of Marion Maréchal, far-right politician and niece of Marine Le Pen. What better than to dig into the family of his rivals to weaken them? It remains to be seen whether the expected effect will be converted at the ballot box.
05:07 – In Villepinte, a founding and violent meeting
If we had to cite a symbolic moment in the campaign of the Reconquête! candidate, it would be the big meeting he gave at the Villepinte Exhibition Center on December 5, 2021. In front of 13,000 people, he presented the main lines from its “Reconquest!” program, from its intransigence with immigrants to its plan to strengthen the means of law enforcement.
The event was marked by the actions of the ultra-right and ultra-violent small group the “Zouaves Paris”, which attacked members of SOS Racisme who had organized a happening to protest against the measures of the Zemmour program that they considered racist. Subsequently, an investigation was opened and the leader of the group was arrested. He was not, however, the only one prowling around during the meeting: among the crowd won over by the Zemmourist ideology, there were other identity groups such as Action Française, the Student Cockade or Ex-Generation, profaning xenophobic ideas, homophobic and anti-media. This meeting is remembered as the most violent and extreme of this 2022 campaign.
It is therefore at 8 p.m. that the first estimates of the results of the first round of the presidential election will be known, they will be accessible directly from our great direct from the 2022 presidential election. Regarding his own result, Eric Zemmour has always had the same ambitions: to win this election. And never during the campaign the former polemicist wanted to decide in the event that he would be eliminated in the first round. “I will be in the 2nd round”, he hammered in recent days. This week, he wrote a tweet saying that if he loses in the second round, he will become the main political opponent of the president-elect.
No new poll has appeared since last Friday, the press being prohibited from posting any online during the Saturday and Sunday of the election weekend, until 8 p.m. It is therefore impossible to measure the latest trend dynamics, which could change everything on the ballot. If you want to read what the polls have published in recent weeks, check out our article compilation of poll results, published last Friday.
Candidate for the first time in the presidential election, Éric Zemmour unveiled his program for 2022 in mid-March. If the fight against immigration occupies a large place, the leader of Reconquête! also had to position itself on other subjects such as pensions, purchasing power or even the energy transition. The main lines of the polemicist’s presidential project are exposed on the candidate’s campaign site.