Tuesday, the far-right candidate for the Elysee Palace had explained that he had canceled a trip to the Lyon region in part to prepare for this media meeting.

"I have an important show Thursday night, I have to work. Me, you know, I prepare things, I'm a hard worker," he said on BFMTV.

The main attraction of this "Elysée 2022" program is the debate against Bruno Le Maire.

"Several ministers were candidates" to debate with Eric Zemmour, indicates a framework of the majority.

"The Mayor is a good choice because he has a capacity for hindsight and theorizing, but he will also know how to take him on more concrete and technical subjects" on the economic level.

"So far, Zemmour has not bothered with the details", comments this walker.

During his first meeting, Sunday in Villepinte (Seine-Saint-Denis), Eric Zemmour listed some economic proposals such as lowering production taxes, his desire to "force public procurement to favor French companies" or reduce contributions to "restore purchasing power" to low-income employees, with "100 euros more" per month.

But his meeting was parasitized by tensions and scenes of violence.

Journalists from the Quotidien program (TMC-TF1) were booed and briefly taken to safety.

The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, November 29, 2021 in Paris Eric PIERMONT AFP / Archives

The candidate was grabbed by an individual before going on stage.

The suspected man has just been indicted

At the beginning of his speech, SOS racism activists who had come to carry out an action that wanted to be "non-violent" were attacked by supporters of Éric Zemmour.

An AFP journalist saw about fifty people identified by the police as belonging to the Zouaves - a tiny ultra-right group - who posed at the end of the meeting, chanting: "we are at home we".

An investigation was opened by the Bobigny prosecutor's office.

Eric Zemmour on Tuesday condemned "all violence", while describing SOS Racism activists as "provocateurs", "truffle dogs of subsidies", and the media as "complacent".

Screenshot of an AFPTV video showing incidents between SOS Racism activists and Eric Zemmour sympathizers, December 5, 2021 in Villepinte Colin BERTIER, Aurelia MOUSSLY, Laura DIAB AFP / Archives

The former columnist should again be questioned on the subject, as well as on his relationship to the media.

Last week, he appeared tense during his first interview as a candidate for the TF1 news at 8 p.m., then made insulting remarks against journalist Gilles Bouleau after the interview.

At the end of September Eric Zemmour, who had not yet announced his candidacy, had debated with the rebellious candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon on BFM-TV in front of 3.8 million viewers, an audience card for the channel which produced there the second best score in its history.

© 2021 AFP