ZEMMOUR. Did Eric Zemmour’s novelty effect run out of steam? After a dazzling breakthrough, the presidential candidate recedes in the results of the latest polls and now seems a step behind the Macron-Pécresse-Le Pen trio …
The essential
- Eric Zemmour is now officially a candidate for the presidential election. The polemicist embarked on the Elyos battle after months of making himself known to the general public, experiencing a meteoric breakthrough in the polls.
- But the survey dynamic seems to have subsided. The far-right candidate, a given time in the second round, now seems less able to rise against Emmanuel Macron. Credited with around 15% of the vote in the results of the latest polls, he is placed behind Marine Le Pen and Valérie Pécresse.
- After his first campaign meeting, the former journalist now wants to broaden his base and convince, tackling two different exercises: a technical debate with Bruno Le Maire on France 2 and participation in a broadcast by Cyril Hanouna on C8 in one week.
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Zemmour at Hanouna: a few clashes and a lot of ointment
Campaign column of December 17, 2021, 8:28 a.m. Eric Zemmour was Cyril Hanouna’s first guest, this Thursday, December 16, 2021, on C8, for the launch of the new show “Face à Baba”. The presidential candidate was brought to discuss with a dozen debaters in “face to face” which took place in public. A particular configuration for a theoretically neutral show in the staging, especially when applause may have risen from the stands after the projections of the far-right candidate or the schoolboy humor of the presenter.
Other unusual moments in this kind of program: the exchanges of Eric Zemmour with his “friend” Eric Naulleau or his former partner of CNews Christine Kelly, who, far from “face to face”, were in turn summed up to long exchanges of courtesies, highlighting in turn the professionalism, “science”, the benevolence or even the sympathy of the candidate. All before Eric Revel, figure of “Face à l’Info” on Cnews too, comes to praise the coherence of the economic program of his former colleague on the plateau.
Lively discussions with Aymeric Caron, Elisabeth Moreno and Alexis Corbières
Side opponents, actor Matthieu Kassovitz was to be on the set against Eric Zemmour. Affected by the Covid, he had to be content with a video message, broadcast at the start of the program. Eric Zemmour was also opposed to the former journalist and essayist Aymeric Caron, who was very offensive on issues of racism and immigration, before the duel turned into a battle of numbers and invectives, or to the emergency physician Mathias Wargon for a debate on the AME or the future of the hospital.
Faced with Elisabeth Moreno, Minister Delegate for Equality and Diversity, the tone is further raised on positive discrimination, the LGBT community or PMA for all. But it was when the issue of violence against women was raised that the debate took its most astonishing turn. While Eric Zemmour explicitly accused the “inhabitants of the suburbs” of this violence, the deputy of Seine-Saint-Denis Alexis Corbières, who was waiting his turn, got carried away from the audience. A particularly lively exchange that will continue on the theme of education and history later in the show.
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It is a program format that seemed more suited to his profile as a polemicist rather than that of a presidential candidate. Thursday, December 16, 2021, Eric Zemmour was the guest of Cyril Hanouna on C8, in the new show “Face à Baba” during which he spoke with ten speakers. Sometimes with opponents in total opposition to his ideas, sometimes with guests whose proximity to the founder of Reconquête is no longer to be proven. The whole, interspersed with traits of schoolboy humor from the presenter and applause in the stands, unusual in this kind of program preceding the supreme election. A format very far from the solemnity of his debate with Bruno Le Maire a week earlier on France 2.
Eric Zemmour faced the actor and director Mathieu Kassovitz (placed in solitary confinement because of the Covid, he had recorded a video), the ex-journalist Aymeric Caron, the emergency doctor Mathias Wargon, the minister responsible for the ‘Equality and Diversity Elisabeth Moreno, LFI deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis Alexis Corbière, but also columnist Eric Naulleau, CNews presenter Christine Kelly, journalist and former colleague of “Face à l’Info” also Eric Revel, two figures from the Canal group’s news channel, the editor of Valeurs Actuelles Charlotte d’Ornellas as well as Stanislas Rigault, president of Génération Z. More complacent guests with regard to the candidate.
During a program of more than three hours, the polemicist addressed questions of identity, gender equality, LGBT rights, the wearing of the veil, Europe, youth, school or even purchasing power, developing proposals already known, without any novelty, sometimes in the middle of a deafening mayhem as against Alexis Corbière, sometimes in a friendly atmosphere as against his former partners on CNews.
Eric Zemmour formalized his candidacy for the 2022 presidential election on Tuesday, November 30, 2021, in a video posted on the Internet and relayed in the media. The ex-journalist had made no secret of it in recent months, he was counting on playing a role in this presidential campaign. On August 28, he said without batting an eyelid that he “wanted” to unite the rights. After going to “the meeting of the French” as an essayist to promote his book, after having multiplied the signing sessions and even public meetings, after having put his collaboration with Le Figaro on hold at the beginning of September, he declared himself candidate in a 10-minute video in which we could observe him sitting at a desk, in a somewhat quaint library decor, reading his text in front of a microphone. A posture that some will have compared to that of General de Gaulle during the appeal of June 18. Above all, Eric Zemmour’s candidacy video was interspersed with dozens of images and video extracts, aimed at illustrating the decline of France or conversely the lost greatness of the country. Many extracts used without the consent of the authors and which provoked numerous protests and threats of complaint from the rights holders.
Will Eric Zemmour come and dynamise the presidential campaign and reshuffle all the cards? If he waited several months before officially declaring himself a candidate in the ballot, the polemicist had been identified as an actor in political life from September because of his speeches and multiple trips. Thus, from September, it was included in the opinion polls carried out by the polls. And his presence immediately aroused a real attraction among some voters. The ideas of the former journalist seem to infuse public opinion. To the point that, just credited with 5.5% of the vote on June 9 (Ifop poll), Eric Zemmour is now given around 15% in voting intentions. It was sometimes even given in front Marine Le Pen in the fall, but has been slowing down in the polls since mid-November. Discover the compilation of polls carried out by the Context newspaper below.
Eric Zemmour has already distilled part of his program for the presidential election. In the area of immigration that he constantly evokes, the polemicist says he wants to put an end to the right to the soil and establish national preference for allowances, but also to abolish State medical aid. Mocked for his weaknesses in the economy, the former journalist says he is in favor of retirement at 64, the introduction of 39 hours in the public service or a massive reduction in production taxes. He also advocates the creation of a large Ministry of Industry to direct public orders to French companies and make the country’s reindustrialization a priority. On the question of salaries, Eric Zemmour proposes a reduction in the CSG from 9% to 2.5% for salaries between the minimum wage and 2000 euros net and is against a return of the ISF. Advocating administrative simplification via the creation of a High Commission responsible for implementing it, the candidate wants a return to 90 km / h and the wearing of the uniform at school.