In a speech broadcast Tuesday on his YouTube channel, Eric Zemmour formalized his candidacy for the 2022 presidential election, so that the French "feel at home again".
"I have decided to run for the presidential election," solemnly announced the far-right polemicist, reading his text into a period microphone.
A staging reminiscent of the appeal of General de Gaulle on June 18, 1940.
Punctuated by the second movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony, the official announcement was accompanied by a video with nostalgic accents mixing extracts from films or television news, images of urban violence or archives of the “Pays de Notre-Dame”. de-Paris et des clochers ”, the Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe.
Assuring wanting to "save" France, the far-right polemicist, Eric Zemmour, formalized, this Tuesday, his candidacy for the presidential election of 2022 during a filmed allocation of ten minutes relayed on social networks . "I decided to run for the presidential election," announced the former columnist, reading his text in a period microphone, reminiscent of the June 18 appeal. Scenes of urban violence, references to Joan of Arc, Louis XIV, Johnny or Georges Brassens also spread the speech of Eric Zemmour. But what France did the newly declared candidate for the Elysée want to paint the portrait of? To understand,
20 Minutes
interviewed Benjamin Tainturier, doctoral student at the Médialab de Science Po, specialist in the radical right.
What is this France that Eric Zemmour defended during the announcement of his candidacy?
In his video, Eric Zemmour speaks of “exiles from within”.
This is the first point.
This expression defines well the people to whom it is addressed, it is a formula which was used during the movement of the "yellow vests".
She synthesizes her audience well, she is large enough to be able to embrace and bring together a whole bunch of people, categories.
The expression also takes up the rhetoric that Eric Zemmour uses from the beginning, that is to say that of the battle against immigration, of "one is not at home in one's own country", he wants France recovers its status as a nation.
The second point is that ultimately, it is not addressed to a particular France, but to “the France object”.
From the start, when we point out Eric Zemmour's mistakes, we contradict him using statistics, data, but he has nothing to do with it.
He defends a kind of image of immemorial France, with the cathedrals, the Poilus of 1914 and the references to Charles De Gaulle, Jean Gabin or even Charles Aznavour.
There is something of the French imagination that goes beyond parties, Eric Zemmour wants to separate from the right or the left.
"
But what exactly is he dreaming about?
Eric Zemmour dreams of convincing people that the bundle of all problems is immigration, it is the point of intersection of all problems, not just security.
He positions immigration not only as an issue for security, but also for the economy.
Immigration is key, even for the economy.
For him, France is no longer a big country, because it is crossed by immigrants, he explains that if the popular classes are unemployed, it is because the immigrants take their jobs.
Moreover, for that, he uses the references to Charles de Gaulle, also synonymous with industrial grandeur, with the Concorde for example, and therefore of national grandeur.
Why is he defending these values?
You can't really know.
Is it out of opportunism, because he has found a window of speech that he considers neglected, or does he believe in it personally?
In his big interview given in October 2021 to
Thinkerview
, Eric Zemmour explained that he was a lover of France, a real enthusiast.
But I couldn't tell you.
He then seems to be nostalgic.
But of what ?
Paradoxically, Eric Zemmour is not nostalgic for a specific time, he is nostalgic for the “country”.
It is a word that keeps coming back, loaded with meaning.
He is nostalgic for an identified form of what France is, for an imagination.
There is a very important myth that comes up often, it is that of the golden age, it is constantly in the rhetoric of the radical right, it is used in the service of a discourse on decline.
He places himself as the providential man who will try to restore the golden age, but it is a political myth.
De Gaulle, Gabin, La Fontaine… Why did he use all these references?
These are people who matter to the French imagination, specters that are mobilized in the service of a discourse, characters of political, artistic and cultural greatness.
He also wants to show that it's not just a political fight.
There is something of the French imagination that goes beyond parties, it wants to separate from the right or the left.
He understands it in the sense: "France is great, why?
Because it is France ”, it is a speech which works, France gave birth to Jean Gabin, Charles de Gaulle, Concorde.
And then, it might not be a coincidence that the video comes out on the same day as Josephine Baker's Pantheonization, there is a way to reestablish his own pantheon.
Our file on Eric Zemmour
Which voters does Eric Zemmour hope to reach?
He wants to seduce everyone.
He has been criticized for failing to seduce the popular classes, but when he talks about unemployment or public services, he talks to them.
He explains that in public services, at school, in police stations, we see the reality of France, the one we do not recognize, from which we feel dispossessed.
Using these references, these places, is one way of reaching out to the lower classes.
There is also the form that plays.
It is addressed to the people, to the nation.
By standing alone in front of a microphone, which is largely inspired by the appeal of June 18, in a library, with Beethoven's music in the background, he shows himself as a great political figure, as a providential man, and somewhere, like Charles de Gaulle.
Beyond de Gaulle, could Eric Zemmour be inspired by Donald Trump?
When he arrived at France 2, of which he was the “right-wing surety”, he gradually evolved in his speech.
But lately, there is clearly a Trumpian inspiration, in his gestures and especially in his excesses, between the middle finger, the first names affair or the gun pointed at journalists.
This parallel with Donald Trump surely encouraged him in his radicalism.
Politics
Presidential 2022: "We had to move on ..." Eric Zemmour launches into the battle to revitalize his campaign
Television
Eric Zemmour's clip, full of stolen images, is no longer broadcast on BFM and LCI
Candidacy
Presidential election 2022
Video
Eric Zemmour
Elections
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