The polemicist Eric Zemmour gathered several thousand supporters, Sunday, December 5 at the Villepinte Exhibition Center (Seine-Saint-Denis), for a first campaign meeting supposed to demonstrate the strength of his candidacy, however criticized, after heckling trips.

Some 13,000 supporters gathered around their candidate, organizers said.

Coming from Picardy, Loménie, 28, who was spit on "by people of immigrant background", believes in Eric Zemmour to fight against "the insecurity suffered by women".

His companion, nicknamed Bauduch, close to the “traditionalist and royalist” movement, shares his concerns.

"Impossible is not French", expression attributed to Napoleon, and an olive branch - the meaning of the name Zemmour in Berber - are the slogan and logo chosen by the former columnist who spoke in the midst of afternoon.

At the entrance to the meeting, activists from the Action Française monarchist movement distribute their newspapers.

"We meet on certain themes including immigration, sovereignty," said Brocard, a 24-year-old social worker.

Some 900 young people from the “Generation Z” militant movement were present, according to its president Stanislas Rigault.

"Macron resignation", they shout to make the public wait.

Trump-style goodies such as "well see" or "Zemmour 2022" caps, some made in Bangladesh, were sold on the sidelines of the meeting.  

Journalists booed

More than 400 journalists were accredited.

Before the rally began, members of the Daily show were booed by the audience with cries of "and everyone hates Daily", AFP reported.

The polemicist modeled his calendar on the LR congress, who chose their champion Valérie Pécresse on Saturday, with a more moderate profile than his rival Eric Ciotti. 

Like Marine Le Pen, his competitor on the far right, Eric Zemmour invited the disappointed LR to join him, in an open letter in which he attests: "We are so close".

Initially planned at the Zénith, in La Villette, in the north-east of Paris, the meeting was finally relocated to Villepinte, in the suburbs.

Eric Zemmour's team explains it by "popular enthusiasm", but also admits security reasons.

Demonstration in Paris

A dense security system has been deployed in Villepinte.

Tensions erupted at midday between dozens of opponents to the arrival of Eric Zemmour and the police, in front of the RER station.

Thirty people, who were in an area closed to demonstrations, were arrested for identity verification and taken to the police station, according to a police source.

In Paris, some 2,200 demonstrators according to the prefecture, 10,000 according to the organizers, gathered in peace to denounce the candidacy and the speech in their eyes "racist" Eric Zemmour, at the call of about fifty unions, parties and associations.

The PS president of the departmental council of Seine-Saint-Denis, Stéphane Troussel, had launched a petition to have the meeting canceled by the owners of the place, the Viparis group, by calling on his "diversity charter".

The meeting makes it possible to measure the rallies, while the organization is criticized internally for its fragility and more radical activists have integrated the campaign, such as the former megretist and close to the identities Grégoire Tingaud, responsible for coordinating the regional referents.

The financier Charles Gave withdrew his support and the sovereignist Philippe de Villiers was not present on Sunday.

Become "the king of France"

On the other hand, several personalities of the Manif pour tous, opposed to same-sex marriage, came to Villepinte.

At the microphone, the former conservative deputy Jean-Frédéric Poisson congratulated himself on having with others "installed the stakes of civilization at the heart of the presidential campaign".

Laurence Trochu, president of the Conservative Movement, associated until now with LR, denounced the "ideological decomposition of the right", which "should have offered a real alternative to the progressivism of the left, cradle of Emmanuel Macron".

Sovereignist Paul-Marie Coûteaux, former spokesperson for Marine Le Pen and friend of Eric Zemmour, booed the United States Embassy for its warning messages in front of the security risks of the meeting, as well as the " feudalism "of journalists," propaganda technicians ".

He called on Eric Zemmour to become "the king of France".

The figure of "yellow vests" Jacline Mouraud, on behalf of "ordinary people", denounced "happy globalization, the Trojan horse of foreigners".

Also present were Pierre-Jean Chalençon, collector of Napoleon's objects, accused of having organized clandestine dinners during confinement, and television host Éric Naulleau.

At their side was also Karim Ouchikh, a close friend of the far-right writer Renaud Camus, promoter of the conspiracy theory of the "great replacement" claimed by Eric Zemmour (replacement of European populations by non-European immigrants).

The figure of "yellow vests" Jacline Mouraud was also there to support Eric Zemmour and "represent popular France".

General Bertrand de la Chesnais, former head of the list for the RN in Carpentras (Vaucluse), who is already working on defense issues, could be appointed campaign manager.

The announcement of Eric Zemmour's candidacy was deemed "sinister" by the entire political class.

In addition to its tone, the candidate's video had been criticized for its amateurism with the use of images without having the rights.

With AFP

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