Technical and generally courteous on the economic side, the discussions rose in tone about Islam and French identity.
Bruno Le Maire criticized Eric Zemmour for sending a "slap in the face to French" Muslim citizens, asking them to "choose between Islam and France".
He underlined "the urgent need to fight" against Mr. Zemmour and "the extreme right".
Eric Zemmour estimated for his part to offer an "extended hand" to the French Muslims for "that they assimilate the history of France and French customs".
According to him, "Islam is not only a faith, it is also a code, the Islamic laws. I say that one must choose between the Islamic laws, the code, the Sharia and the Republic".
Follower of the conspiracy theory of the "great replacement" of European populations by immigrants, he said "not to be far right", but to wish that "France remains France".
He criticized Bruno Le Maire for "not seeing the demographic and political reality" of the country.
The debate was even more heated on the history of France during the Occupation.
Bruno Le Maire accused Eric Zemmour of "rehabilitating the Vichy regime", of making "Pétain the defender of French Jews".
"You should cry rather than defend the Vichy regime", he said, asking Eric Zemmour if he would be ready to take up the speech of the Vel d'Hiv by Jacques Chirac, in 1995, to recognize the responsibility of the French State in the deportation of the Jews.
"I am not a Pétainist", "I am absolutely not rehabilitating the Vichy regime", but "France was in London" with "General de Gaulle", therefore "France has no responsibility in the Vel roundup 'd'Hiv, it was the Germans who imposed it, "said Eric Zemmour, who would not" remake "the speech of Jacques Chirac, he said.
"I am horrified by what I heard. René Bousquet, Paris police prefect, and Pierre Laval all knowingly and voluntarily participated" in the deportation "and not under the orders of the Nazi regime," replied the minister. .
Eric Zemmour's far-right rival, Marine Le Pen, had already provoked a controversy in 2017 by asserting during the presidential campaign that "France is not responsible for the Vel d'Hiv", in 1942.
© 2021 AFP