French far-right expert Zemmour has submitted a presidential candidacy Politics News

French far-right media expert Eric Zemmour announced on Tuesday that he will run for president in next year’s election, adding a controversial and strong voice against immigration. the field of challenges Trying to remove President Emmanuel Macron.

Seen by critics as an unforgiving racist, but admired by supporters as a champion of traditional French values, Zemmour has risen in the polls in recent months, although there are signs that this initial moment has begun to slow.

His statement was made hours before the last right-wing Republican (LR) televised debate in front of a congress to elect his candidate over the weekend that the April 2022 area scheme is now finally taking shape.

“I have decided to take our destiny into our own hands. I have decided to run in the presidential election, ”Zemmour said in a YouTube video about warnings against immigrants and pledges to restore the country’s greatness globally.

“It’s no longer time to reform France, but to save it,” Zemmour said, adding that many voters “no longer know your country.”

denouncing the “decline and decadence” of France, said Macron has promised that it will be something new, but that it has only been a “synthesis of the previous ones”.

Zemmour’s official announcement, dubbed by some as “Trump of France,” suggested he believed he had the funding and support to oust Macron and defeat veteran far-right leader Marine Le Pen in next April’s election.

The first official meeting of the campaign is due to take place on Sunday morning in Paris — antifascists and unions have already pledged to protest the “silent Zemmour” in the French capital at 13:00 (12:00 GMT).

With a sour, lively tongue and two convictions for hate speech, Zemmour, 63, hopes his radical stance on reducing immigration and Islamism in France will attract conservatives in a country riddled with racial and religious tensions.

He is one of France’s best-known commentators, warning Muslims of the country’s “colonization” because he believes his religion is “incompatible” with French values.

Sliding support

Opinion polls proposed Support for Zemmour rose in September and October and briefly became Macron’s best rival, but his popularity seems to have waned in the last month.

The latest poll put Zemmour third in the first vote from 14 to 15 percent, two to three points less than in early November, according to an Ifop group study published in the Journal du Dimanche on Sunday.

He came out behind Macron at 25 percent and Le Pen at 19-20 percent. With those scores, they would both advance to the second round that Macron would have won if he had voted now, the poll said.

A photo of Zemmour gives a middle finger “Real deep!” During a trip to Marseilles, opponents of a protester were caught signaling that his campaign was being implanted.

The famous Closer magazine also reported last week that the father of three married children was expecting a child with 28-year-old senior adviser Sarah Knafo, who complained that it was an invasion of privacy, but did not deny it.

Other influential people from the far right have distanced themselves from him, and his campaign team is said to be immersed in internal struggles and dominated by young activists with little political experience.

“I don’t support this candidacy that is tainted by despair,” former campaign assistant Pierre Meurin told L’Express magazine on Monday. “You have to offer people some dreams, and not just blood and tears.”

The race takes shape

Le Pen is gaining new confidence, and says his rival, after an initial media attack by his rival, the son of Algerian Jewish parents who migrated to France, has “begun to settle the dust.”

For Republicans, Tuesday’s first hour of debate, starting at 8pm on France 2 television, will be the last of four of the five candidates for the nomination, with the party announcing two rounds of voting this week and the winner announced on Saturday.

Analysts say the result is open with competitors such as former EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier or hard-right lawmaker Eric Ciotti alongside former minister Xavier Bertrand and Paris regional head Valerie Pecresse.

Macron, who according to current polls is on the verge of winning the election, has not yet officially declared his candidacy, but is expected to announce it early next year.