Presidential: Éric Zemmour struggles to win over the female electorate

Europe 1, with AFP 2:58 p.m., March 8, 2022

"It's a real handicap for him," said pollster Frédéric Dabi.

Due in particular to his writings and declarations on women, Eric Zemmour is struggling to convince the female electorate and is trying to respond to criticism one month before the first round.

Monday evening on LCI, the presidential candidate stressed that he wanted a "balance" between "masculine" and "feminine" values ​​in society. 

But "when there is an excess of feminine values, there is a weakness in society", he said.

The far-right candidate sweeps away any accusation of phallocracy.

"Around me, there are women in power who would not bear to work with a misogynist", he replies, relying on the rallying of Marion Maréchal and the role of his strategist and partner Sarah Knafo.

Tuesday evening, for International Women's Rights Day, his team is organizing a meeting of "women with Zemmour" in Paris during which he will speak.

Also on this symbolic day, Mediapart, which has been collecting testimonies from women since 2021 accusing Eric Zemmour of "inappropriate behavior and sexual assault", broadcast a 36-minute video investigation with several women who speak in front of the camera.

"Mediapart wants to make a hit on Women's Day by recycling testimonies already released last year. Shabby five weeks before the first round," reacted the candidate's entourage. 

"A small flaw"

Polls show that Eric Zemmour attracts more voters than female voters.

"He has a fairly clear masculine prism, a bit like Jean-Marie Le Pen in the 80s, but more markedly," said Frédéric Dabi (Ifop), while his RN rival "Marine Le Pen 'outperformed' with women".

With Eric Zemmour's decline in the polls, the differential between his male electorate - 13% of voting intentions in the first round according to a recent survey - and female (11%) has narrowed.

But a few weeks ago, this gap reached 7 to 8 points.

His entourage concedes that "there is a small defect that we would like to fill". 

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Part of its program is therefore dedicated to "French women": the Reconquest candidate!

promises the creation of 60,000 crèche places, offers parents the freedom to divide parental leave between them and wants to increase survivors' pensions for widows.

But even if he no longer wishes to talk about it, the former essayist is regularly referred to his writings. 

In 2006, in "The First Sex", he believes that a "boy, it undertakes, it attacks and it conquers".

And compares himself to Casanova, a paradox for those who address an electorate attached to the traditional family.

"In a traditional society, the sexual appetite of men goes hand in hand with power; women are the goal and the booty of any gifted man who aspires to climb in society", also writes the former columnist in his recent book "France has not said its last word".

His opponents regularly use it as an angle of attack.

"Propaganda"

He claims to be the victim of "propaganda" and claims to be "the one who best protects women." in a dress without being spat on", he castigates, attacking "immigration" and "delinquency". "I do not intend to take away any rights from women", repeats the candidate. At the beginning of December, Eric Zemmour had however promised to "block the LDCs without a father" if he were elected, a pledge sent to several of his conservative Catholic executives, from the Manif 'for all.

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On the subject of salary inequalities, before his candidacy, he declared in November that there were "many women who are in less well paid professions, but they are the ones who choose them".

Sunday in Toulon, his lieutenant and defector from the RN, Senator Stéphane Ravier, paid tribute to his "mother who did the best job in the world, mother".