Le Z has made politics risky again (JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images)
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A 59-second viral video has captured the growing dismay of the French political class at the swift rise of Eric Zemmour in the presidential race. In it, a cyclist wearing a Tour de France yellow jersey overtakes a succession of fellow competitors without even pedalling — he is not sitting on the saddle, but balanced across it, poised, horizontally, like a superhero. He is tagged “Le Z”, while each racer he flies past is briefly labelled after one of the other candidates.
Any professional Instagrammer would shudder at the amateurish unsophistication of the video. But that is the point: Zemmour, 63, a bestselling author fired by his publishers this summer and a TV polemicist regularly sued for hate speech by advocacy groups (so far he’s won more often than he’s lost), reaches the parts of the electorate others don’t.
Although he still hasn’t formally declared his candidacy, his ramped-up media presence in recent months finally prompted polling institutes to include him in their first round voting intentions surveys. In three weeks, Zemmour jumped from 6% to 15%, ahead of Hard Left three-time candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon (9%), Green primary winner Yannick Jadot (9%) and Socialist Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who in the same period dropped from 7% to 5%.
But Le Z’s chief victims are all on the Right. He has all but killed off Marine Le Pen, who has dropped from 28% this summer to 17%. The two main Centre-Right candidates, Paris Region president Valérie Pécresse and Xavier Bertrand, both former Sarkozy Cabinet members, are lagging at 12% and 14% respectively, with Michel Barnier, the former Ogre of Brexit unexpectedly turned sovereignty champion, battling them for the Républicain nomination at 11%.
All are uninspiring: le Pen has been left seeming incompetent since her defeat by Macron in 2017; Pécresse and Bertrand are spouting the same things France has heard a hundred times before; and Barnier is baffling because the French, unlike the British, mostly don’t know who he is.
Zemmour, much like other disruptive populist figures, appeals to those voters (and many no-longer voters) who had despaired of ever finding a candidate expressing their concerns. He speaks to their fears: the loss of French identity and rising insecurity caused, he believes, by unchecked immigration. His books, which have sold in the hundreds of thousands, compare a rose-tinted past Republic, where teachers were respected, fathers held solid jobs, families stayed together and classical culture wasn’t derided as pale and stale.
So far, so Trump — with a touch of Tucker Carlson. A Le Figaro journalist, Zemmour came to national pre-eminence when he was given his own daily debating show two years ago by CNEWS, a rolling news TV cable station which was re-inventing itself as the French Fox News. CNEWS’s ratings shot up, overtaking its CNN-like rival BFMTV. Le Z’s style, however, couldn’t be further from Trump’s. “Unlike my rivals, I write all my own books,” he jokes. He is highly cultured, even if one might argue that his erudition is preserved in aspic: he quotes 18th-century philosophers and 19th-century historians, with nary a concession to popular topics. (He does like football and the Rolling Stones.)
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SubscribeThe clue here is that Castex has delayed passing on energy price rises to the public until the month after the next election. This shows us how crooked and cynical politics (all over the world) has become. All we need is for Zemmour to pick this one item for discussion and we would have a real Trump.
How refreshing Trump was when he arrived; how boring, old and stultified Biden seems after Trump has gone. Bring on Zemmour – he actually sounds like an interesting person.
Bravo to Le Z if he speaks plainly to Les Deplorables (I am one, American flavor). I don’t understand the nuances of French politics, but if Le Z is a force that can stop–or at least delay–the self-harm that essentially open borders and unchecked immigration from the Third World, the I say Viva Le Z!
The immigration debate in Europe and the USA seems to ignore or mock the reality of immigration. France is not threatened if some Italians or Danes move to France; they will adapt French values, the French way, if you will, and get on just swimmingly. If some Norwegians or Brits wanted to immigrate to the USA, same thing. But what regular Norwegian or Brit would say–Hey, I can’t live the American Dream here–I’ll fare much better in the USA? None. Zero. There were some post-war, but since the 60s, virtually no normal European has immigrated to the USA and for good reason.
The problem is that the vast majority of “immigrants,” most illegal invaders in the USA, have undermined and destroyed what used to be a common culture in the USA, and the same thing seems to have happened in France. Why would normal Europeans immigrate to the USA when a Civil War is coming? Isn’t it biologically true that any invasive species has a tremendous deleterious effect on native populations? Are humans really that different?
France seems to have a history of assimilating Europeans as new French men and women quite well. But as the dystopian reality of today’s France shows, those days are long over. I would support any leader or any combination of parties that would directly address this and take decisive action. Trump did a lot to gain control over the immigration system–resisted at every point by the Deep State (a real thing), and Biden has opened the borders, undoing all that Trump accomplished. But I was and remain completely against building the wall (21st Century Maginot Line). The USA, and perhaps France, must “harden the target” against illegal aliens. No one in the USA or France should get any service, any benefit at all, nil, nada, rien, unless he or she is bleeding. Treat the person and then place the person on an immediate deportation track. Finie!
British ‘common culture’ has also been assassinated by the constant relentless promotion of divergence and even outright rejection. Not just politically but commercially we are subjected to the onslaught of the ‘minorities’ : every television programme has to feature ‘ethnic minorities’ in wildly unrealistic proportions to the actual recorded population ( though very few Chinese people, I guess they are mainly gainfully employed in professions which require the three rs, and so don’t go in for acting). Advertisements for every commodity and service are fronted by the same minority, even when the target audience bears no resemblance to the portrait chosen.
This morning I received a flyer for hearing aids. Yup , well targeted we are both over 70. The guy who was the proud advocate for this product was a black chap in his thirties…. Still, better than the optician who sent me a sight test reminder featuring a Rastafarian in full gear. I just couldn’t see myself ( pun intended) in those glasses.
would I dare to post this if you know where I Live?
Excellent response to my thoughts! The same or worse is true in the USA, though I’ve been in Europe for some time now. It’s sickening that woke propaganda/ists have dominated so much of everyday life, out of all proportion to reality, though that is changing in US and surely the UK.
There was a movie many years ago called NETWORK where the protagonist, Howard Beale, I think, had the line I’M MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANY MORE! I’m waiting for a Network-like moment in the West in general.
I would like to live in a country where most of the citizens share the same common culture, same core values, i.e. freedom of speech. That is no longer the case and I see a Civil War coming. I’d prefer a peaceful division of the USA into Woke and Non-Woke, but I don’t see that happening. Lock and load.
Interesting that you mention a Civil War in USA. A political, not armed, war seems an obvious outcome to me divided as they are into blue and red with people leaving California for Texas and other red states. I watched, online, Australians violently protesting against lockdowns but not a word on regular MSM here in UK. Likewise for USA and, if you are BBC, nobody knows what a Gilet Jaune vs a gendarme is.
Non! I predict a real shooting war. No joke. The level of hatred is so absolutely extreme, it will take little to set it off. Lock and load.
I may be early (just a bit), but I’m not wrong.
I had a copy of this back in the day https://amzn.to/3uJUx4r 1971. Bit dear now. They lost in Vietnam because only the Vietcong and the NVA knew who they were shooting at. I think secession must come first if only to establish battle lines. Look up General Isaac Brock, if it weren’t for a sniper he could have carried on to New Orleans.
Moutet, Presidente! Another clear and informative article. A lot here for anyone not tracking the election, and worryingly deep discontentnments, closely.
Yes, she is a national treasure and I could not improve on her analysis.
Small events are often revealing. Today? The obit of Saadi Yacef, ‘Battle of Algiers’ revolutionary who later described how FLN created the monster of FIS. With France wavering in Mali’s jihadi war, as Russians mercenaries move in, and with French ex-generals mumbling of civil war risks at home, the Algerian history of France is still relevant and felt daily. Z is partly a manifestation of that longue duree. How he fits in – god knows. How will the London French vote (physically or with funds).
It is relevant today because although the colonisation of Algeria by France is now over, the colonisation of France is continuing apace. Every day the security situation gets worse. Every day we hear the stories of attacks on French people, like in Lyon today, for racial reasons. We cannot enter territories within our own country because it is no longer safe. I now avoid places that were, in my own childhood, still safe. How is this acceptable? Meanwhile, the fortunes of our government are drained by these idle, criminal, parasitic and disloyal elements living among us. Will France elect MLP or Z? Probably neither and I would consider both too moderate. The situation really demands a radical action.
This is a fascinating article and the comparison to Trump a very valid one. Like Trump, Le Z is not part of the establishment, though having said that I would say that being part of the establishment could be more important in France than it is in the US.
For a while now I have been wondering if someone from the centre right or the right would rise up from nowhere, in the same way as Macron did. Perhaps I need wonder no more.
Stand by for the “hatchet job” though, if Le Z does indeed turn out to be a threat to Macron. Remember Fillon.
The only thing I would add is how devastating Zemmour can be in debate – and just how funny. He always enters debate with a “let the games begin” look on his face – while at the same time projecting a kind of relaxed humility.
Like him or loathe him he is a cool customer. You really wouldn’t play poker with him!
Macron the Narcissistic has introduced medical apartheid in France, gutting the principles on which the Republic was founded.
This otherwise informative article makes no mention of Zemmour’s position on this most pressing of issues.
Please could the author explain why not?
I would also be interested in any comments on how Macron’s cruel and divisive power trip is playing out politically.