Villepinte (AFP)

"It's horrifying. Especially after having seriously said that they want to + reduce the power of the media. + In a democracy, press freedom is not a joke and should never be threatened", reacted the Minister for Citizenship .

She was commenting on a video in which we see Eric Zemmour trying out a sniper weapon, which is the 3rd generation of the model used by the RAID, then saying to journalists "It's no longer laughing, eh, push yourself, step back!", Before aiming at them and put the gun back on the stand laughing.

The national police told AFP that the scene took place on the manufacturer's stand, and not on one of those of the police, where visitors can under no circumstances wield a weapon and even less point it at someone. 'a.

"There was no political message, no threat," Mr. Zemmour then reacted to the press.

"Marlène Schiappa is a fool, that's what I answer her. She is grotesque and ridiculous. She tries to ride a grotesque controversy," he added.

"We have counter-powers which have become power, that is to say justice, the media, minorities. We must remove the power from these counter-powers", declared the far-right polemicist at the time. of a conference that looks like a meeting on Saturday in Béziers.

At the Milipol interior security fair, which is held in Villepinte (Seine-Saint-Denis), Mr. Zemmour was notably accompanied by General Bertrand de la Chesnais, former head of the list supported by the RN in the municipal elections of 2020 in Carpentras (Vaucluse).

The polemicist considered "interesting to see how we can protect our country" against "asymmetrical wars, between a group that we call a terrorist, me that I call a jihadist, and an army or a police".

On purchasing power, he said he did not want "to fall into the race for the shallot of demagogic measures".

According to him, we have "a problem of purchasing power because we have become impoverished" and "that we have deindustrialised".

But "safety is important too. I come here because it is important".

Marlène Schiappa at the National Assembly on March 30, 2021 Bertrand GUAY AFP / Archives

The vice-president LREM of the Assembly Hugues Renson judged the "unheard-of sequence".

"A politician does not play like this", he added, qualifying Eric Zemmour of "mountebank".

"Fortunately he aims badly" because "you never point a gun at someone, it's a moment of immaturity", commented on LCI deputy LR Eric Woerth.

The RN MEP Thierry Mariani estimated on the same channel that "those who threaten journalists are more the Islamists (...) and this is not a candidate who may have made a bad joke".

He assured that "knowledge of the field will ensure that Marine Le Pen", followed in the polls by Mr. Zemmour, "will end up in the second round, even if I observe that Eric Zemmour is having a good campaign".

mra-mgi-are-sm / ib / cbn

© 2021 AFP