The Casteljaloux festival committee, in Lot-et-Garonne, received, on Saturday, February 22, a distinguished guest for its sixth edition of the Festival of Grasfs. Eric Zemmour, in his capacity as Party President, was at the forefront of the cattle parade. If he had been asked the question, a decade ago, he would no doubt have imagined another hobby after a candidacy for the presidential election. Of course, he continues his visits abroad. On Sunday, for the German legislative elections, he was in Berlin, alongside the far right leader Alice Weidel. But for a few months, he has appeared less in the media, or alongside influential political figures. Less than Sarah Knafo anyway. Who, at the same time, is on the way back to Washington, where she attended the Conservative Convention (CPAC) in the presence of the Trumpists and the Gratin of the European extreme right.
That it seems far away when the thirties, thinking head of the 2022 campaign, refused to appear publicly, swore by the “off” and bet everything on his companion and candidate Zemmour. Elected in the European Parliament on a liberal, sovereignist and radical identity line last June, after a laborious campaign, Sarah Knafo quickly accommodated her new role as a public personality, and now benefits from media overexposure.
“You don’t know who I am?”
“What is it shiny!” The compliment is signed Bernard Guetta. MEP Renew meets Sarah Knafo in Strasbourg, in a taxi to get to the station. They chat a few minutes before he asked him to introduce himself. The interested party then opens round eyes. “You don’t know who I am?” The former journalist is amazed by the insurance and liveliness of the young woman. He is not the only one. In the European Parliament, as in life, Sarah Knafo has professionalized in networking. With more or less finesse. Alexandre Varaut, deputy national rally, still remembers it. The two sit together during a meeting, when the first goes behind him, scratches his neck, smiles, and launches a: “Hello Alexandre!” They had met once or twice in the TGV, the frontist had offered him a coffee. He still can’t believe it. She’s like that, Sarah Knafo. The cheek, its trademark.
His mandate as a MEP serves him as a pass. Too bad if, after the implosion of reconquest during the European campaign, it could only integrate the Europe group of sovereign nations (ENS), the most radical and the most isolated of the European Parliament, including by extreme right formations. In Brussels, she grabbed the subject “digital sovereignty”, on which she writes a report and “works a lot” ensure her colleagues from all sides. She took the opportunity to meet the French leaders of Meta, the public affairs representatives of Dassault. Paris is no exception to the rule. When she does not sit, she takes care of developing her relational circle. Recently, Sophie de Menthon, the president of the employers’ movement Ethic, invited her to one of her lunches to the very select circle of the Interalliée Union. She went there on March 27. The middle of the bosses knows her well. She had the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of her big names alongside Eric Zemmour. Since then, Xavier Niel, Henri Proglio and Loïk Le Floch Prigent have always won their phone when she wishes to consult them on a subject.
“I don’t think he happens to do anything other than seduce, which she does very well”
But she likes to brew wide. She chats as well with Hubert Védrine as with the old feather of Gabriel Attal, Maxime Cordier, whom she knows well. Listening to it, is there only someone she does not know? Ambroise de Rancourt, the new adviser to Marine Le Pen? She met him in evenings with the frontist sounder Jérôme Sainte-Marie. Pierre-Edouard Sterin New patron of the right and the extreme right? He finds it, according to The world“extremely strong, charismatic and intelligent”. An often shared observation at the first meeting. Although sometimes the “friends” designated put into perspective the depth of their relationship, and evoke only “simple knowledge”. Too bad. “I do not think it happens to do anything other than to seduce, which it does very well. Politically, it represents nothing but seeks to exist with an extraordinary skill,” sums up an elected official who had the opportunity to experiment with the Knafo method.
Method that she does not hesitate to apply to the media world. Since the announcement of its European candidacy, not a week has happened without being crossed on a set. In the media of Vincent Bolloré, in particular. It was the latter who made Eric Zemmour, against the backdrop of extreme declarations, one of CNews’ faces. He naturally opens his doors to his successor, which he knew through him. For months, she has been the regular guest of Cyril Hanouna, who never tires of singing her praises, in her show Do not touch my post! or on Europe 1. Ditto for Pascal Praud, who has self-cotrby a role of spokesperson, and sometimes reads on the air the written reactions or the letters sent to him by the elected official. Basically, the young woman claims Zemmouriste ideological filiation, while cultivating a difference in tone. “She offers a new smiling face and pedago on the far right, and it appeals to the media of our camp,” comments a loved one. The proof: on February 4, his face appeared in one of the Jdnewsthe weekly managed by Geoffroy Lejeune, an unconditional fan of Zemmour whom she has been around for a long time. A few days earlier, it’s the extreme right magazine Boundaries (His boss, Erik Tegner, is an old friend) who offers him his back cover.
“She does not represent only”
Its media presence exceeds friendly circles. Darius Rochebin, the LCI star presenter, also invites him to the channel of the TF1 group. BFMTV readily receives it for debates and interventions. “It’s crazy to make so much noise while having such a low political weight, laughs an elected RN. She does not represent only!” Herself … and Eric Zemmour’s party. Besides, on reconquest, some wonder where their boss has gone since Sarah Knafo took the light. The latter sweeps out questioning as obvious: in September, the couple decided to distribute the tasks: the news media, the morning formats, of topical comments. “He does not like this too short format, he prefers long time shows …” And then he is well occupied, between the writing of his new book and the adaptation of the French suicide in series for Canal +. Yes, really, it is a service that is rendered to him.
And then her successor does not struggle to exist by herself. Recently, she developed a communication tactic based on “shattering revelations”. Its latest: denouncing the supposedly disproportionate wage bill of France work, or the allegedly scandalous expenses of the French Development Agency. The two interventions aroused the reactions of the organizations accused, which, forced to carry out a development, accuse him of manipulating the information. “I am worried about the level of disinformation propagated this week, which harms a healthy, clear and respectful debate,” reacts to L’Express the minister in charge of the Francophonie Thani Mohamed-Soilihi. What does it matter, basically. Whether you talk about it in bad or good, as long as you talk about it.
The comme strategy stroke
The com ‘raised to the rank of strategy is also the operation of Sarah Knafo. Latest example: the young woman is invited, just like most of her MEP comrades, to the nomination of Donald Trump. She swears that this is a personal invitation, obtained thanks to her “Trumpist networks”. The boat is so well led that it becomes almost the special envoy of on -site information channels. In reality, she is miles from the Capitol and attends, with other thousands of fans, in the nomination from the capital One Arena, from where she intervenes in duplex. Round the angles, or enlarge them, what difference, ultimately? No one has ever seen the personal invitation. “Obviously the invitation does not exist, laughs a loved one. But when asked if she does not feel like she is making boxes, she retorts: ” and then, if it works? ‘” Her obsession with communication earned her a few taunts in her camp. One of many: the printing of many posters bearing its image by its European Parliament teams.
From a distance, his former comrades look at the little merry -go -round with a smile. “Its charm works for a while, until the varnish cracks and that it is aware that everything is calculated, Manigance.” They keep a bitter memory of Marion Maréchal’s campaign, and how their own allies have expanded to put sticks on their wheels. They drew a teaching: Sarah Knafo rides for herself. A video of the show Daily has circulated a lot in the reconquest circles. We see Sarah Knafo, in Washington, interviewed by journalists and flanked by Eric Zemmour, in the background, silent and struggling to follow. To reconquer, we strange: “It looks like it’s his intern, it’s insane!”
The town hall of Paris or the presidential election?
Some do not come back from the “naivety” of the former journalist, however columnist for many adventures and political quarrels, about to attend “as a spectator on his own replacement”. “When you see the author of First sex, Who has theorized masculinism in politics, to be rolled on it by a thirty -year -old woman is still funny “, mocks a framework. Those who know her affirm: she thinks of 2027. Boredom is that Eric Zemmour too. She denies, assures that it is” too early “for her, that her European mandate heaps it. And then it is not for nothing that” all young people of politics are Jordan Bardella at Manon Aubry, including her, of course.
The town hall of Paris? “Yes, potential candidates talk about me …” It is she that the management of Figaro And ifop have chosen to test, In their surveyat the end of November, on the municipal elections in the capital. She, too, that Paris Match chose to bring in his record of the most popular political figures (in which she was ahead of Eric Zemmour), always with Ifop. Should it be specified? She knows Frédéric Dabi, the director of the Institute well. Politics is a path that is sometimes good to take alone. It is therefore each on his side that Eric Zemmour and Sarah Knafo go this year to the Agricultural Show. The ambition does not support competition. And if Eric Zemmour were to find the time long, the Cognac festival is only in five months.
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