Read more about French firebrand Zemmour announces he’s running for president on Business Standard. Zemmour made the announcement in a YouTube video set to classical music on Tuesday
Eric Zemmour, the French TV pundit who’s been sanctioned for inciting racial hatred and partly styles himself on anti-establishment figures like Donald Trump, finally announced what many people long suspected: He will fight President Emmanuel Macron for his job in April’s election. Zemmour made the announcement in a YouTube video set to classical music on Tuesday. Seated at a desk in front of an old-style microphone, a set up that sought to echo General Charles de Gaulle’s June 18, 1940 call for a rebellion against German occupation, Zemmour said he wanted to avoid “the disappearance of our civilization.” At first glance, the 63-year-old stands no chance of winning a presidential contest in a country where rivals have long banded together to prevent a far-right candidate from clinching the highest office. He’s also been losing steam in some polls amid a series of mishaps that include a trip to London that didn’t go entirely to plan and the publication of a decidedly unpresidential photo in which he gives a woman the middle finger. Yet French elections are notoriously full of surprises. He could regain momentum, meaning it would no longer be a given that Macron will face off with nationalist leader Marine Le Pen and almost certainly win comfortably, just like in 2017. Zemmour could end up in the second round instead of her. Or, he could split the far-right vote enough to allow a center-right contender to qualify for the run-off, upsetting Macron’s chances of returning to the Elysee. Either way, Zemmour’s rise has revealed a society deeply divided between “those who care about delinquency, immigration and defending laicite (France’s unique brand of secularism) and those who care about fighting discrimination, climate change or purchasing power,” says Victoria Geraut, a Sciences Po researcher who works for the Jean Jaures foundation, a think tank. The rift won’t close any time soon even if his candidacy flounders, according to Geraut. “The groups that back him and who are spreading his ideas will continue to exist, and spread their ideas on immigration or terrorism.
