In the fervor of the Lighthouse, an almost full 3,500-seat room, after coming on stage to electro music, the far-right candidate paid tribute to the "wounded" and the "dead".

"Russia has come to bring the war to Europe," he said in the preamble.

Then he resumed his criticism of "NATO's uninterrupted expansion in the East", "a reason for concern for the Russians" and pleaded for a peace treaty in order "to set in stone the end of the extension of NATO to eastern Europe" with "as an immediate corollary, the ceasefire" and "the withdrawal of Russian troops".

According to him, faced with Russia "(economic) sanctions in themselves will be ineffective" and "will affect" French "interests".

“As we are barely emerging from the health crisis, the price of gas will explode, the price of a barrel of gasoline will increase, the price of cereals will soar,” he insisted.

"The national interest is not to create a second cold war!", Hammers the former editorialist of Figaro and CNews.

The candidate Reconquest!

for the presidential Eric Zemmour in a meeting in Chambéry, on February 25, 2022 in Savoie JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK AFP

Some 300 anti-racist and "antifa" demonstrators contested his coming not far from the meeting, according to the local press.

Mayor and former PS Minister Thierry Repentin had said that Eric Zemmour was "not welcome" in Chambéry.

Dodge

Probably embarrassed by his past statements, Eric Zemmour dodged questions about the Russian invasion throughout the day, crisscrossing the postcard valleys of Haute-Savoie.

In December, the far-right candidate was "betting" that Russia would not invade Ukraine, after praising the "patriotism" of Vladimir Putin.

And he never stopped mentioning the "Russian claims" in the face of "NATO expansion".

"Vladimir Poutine, we are not making a model of him", replies the MEP and defector of the RN Jérôme Rivière, while stressing that diplomacy "does not have to be moralistic"

No question of speaking Russia Friday morning in Saint-Jeoire, a former chief town of canton of 3,500 inhabitants where Eric Zemmour had come to recover a sponsorship, "which is not worth support", affirmed the mayor LR Antoine Valentin, before introducing the meeting in Chambéry to applaud "the Reconquest!".

The candidate Reconquest!

for the presidential Eric Zemmour in a meeting in Chambéry, on February 25, 2022 in Savoie JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK AFP

The sesame granted to Eric Zemmour earned the thirty-year-old city councilor a particularly stormy municipal council the day before.

In front of the town hall, a handful of opponents whistled Eric Zemmour, "contrary to our values" judge the elected opposition representative Stéphane Chambon, in a department where we "live well with foreigners, especially the Turkish community".

But the twenty supporters applauded louder, like Véronique Vallon, 55, who likes the "sincerity" of the candidate, even if she "does not agree" with him on Ukraine, "it is a country very far from us", with "a conflict, soldiers who risk not coming back".

However, she considers that we must "not welcome the Ukrainian refugees", "we do not have the means, we will not be able to take care of them. Otherwise, it would have been with pleasure".

"Happy Globalization"

The candidate Reconquest!

then went to the Avient plastic dye factory, promised to be relocated to Poland by its American owners, according to the mayor, or 40 direct jobs threatened with abolition.

Eric Zemmour pointed the finger at Emmanuel Macron and the "happy globalization of Alain Minc and Jacques Attali".

The candidate Reconquest!

for the presidential Eric Zemmour in a meeting in Chambéry, on February 25, 2022 in Savoie JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK AFP

Eric Zemmour's team has given up on the program scheduled for Saturday morning.

A stroll was planned in a market, but "there are moments adapted to lightness and others less", given the international situation, slips MEP Jérôme Rivière.

But the campaign continues.

"Obviously the event is serious. There is war in Europe. But there is no war in France" and "we must respect the French" and "democracy", underlined Eric Zemmour, in front of a farm in Marcellaz, with a view of the whole valley.

© 2022 AFP