Far-right French presidential candidate Éric Zemmour has been fined €10,000 for inciting racial hatred. “Unaccompanied minors have no business with us, they are thieves, they are murderers, they are rapists, that is all they are. We have to identify them," Zemmour said on September 29, 2020 on the program "Face à l'info". A Paris court therefore sentenced him to 100 days of fines of 100 euros each. If he does not make the payment, he faces imprisonment. Zemmour stayed away from the verdict on Friday. However, he announced that he would appeal. Crime by unaccompanied minors is unbearable and eats up a lot of tax money. It is best for all citizens if they are expelled as soon as possible, Zemmour said.

Michael Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

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Speaking to the Association de la presse étrangère foreign press club that afternoon, he dismissed the conviction as if it were a detail.

He is concerned with stopping the "population exchange" that has started and ending France's decline as an industrial nation, said Zemmour.

He has no prejudices against Arabs.

"I know this world.

My father spoke Arabic very well.

My grandfather spoke Arabic very well,” he said, referring to his Algerian-Jewish roots.

His parents moved to France shortly before Algeria gained independence.

"We must free ourselves from the legal constraints of the EU"

Zemmour said he wanted to prevent Arab countries from blaming France on how to deal with Muslim citizens. He wanted to defend French sovereignty. The EU is preventing France from efficiently controlling immigration flows. "Unlike Marine Le Pen and Valérie Pécresse, I don't think that France is lost without Europe," he said. “France's survival is at stake. We must emancipate ourselves from the legal constraints of the EU and the European Court of Human Rights,” he said. The presidential candidate plans to ask the French about this in a referendum if he is elected.

Zemmour said he was adopting the program that the Gaullist successor parties had always promised but never implemented.

He is for the "Union of the Right", ranging from the voters of Marine Le Pen to those of Valérie Pécresse.

“Extreme right means nothing today.

The extreme right are people who want to overthrow the republic.

I don't want to overthrow the republic.” According to Zemmour, his model is Denmark, whose migration policy is exemplary.

Illegal migrants are quickly rejected there.

The radio and television council CSA already sanctioned Zemmour's testimony in March;

broadcaster C News had to pay a fine of 200,000 euros.

Zemmour has twice previously been convicted of incitement to hatred.