“A provocateur à la Donald Trump”: the candidacy of Eric Zemmour seen by the Anglo-Saxon press – LCI

“Far-right commentator”, “controversial figure”, “anti-immigrant writer”. There are many formulas used by British and American journalists to present Eric Zemmour. The one who formalized his candidacy for the 2022 presidential election on Tuesday sparked many reactions in the Anglo-Saxon press.

After the description of the video that Eric Zemmour posted on social networks to announce his candidacy, which “does not present any proposal or concrete proposal” comment The Guardian, the British newspaper as well as The Daily Mail, The New-York Times or The Washington Post briefly recall the previous functions of the polemicist before dwelling on his positions, the criticisms and the controversies he arouses.

The candidate “was attacked by historians for claiming that Marshal Philippe Pétain, a Nazi collaborator, saved French Jews instead of helping them to be deported to death camps. He was described by the French minister of Justice as a dangerous racist and Holocaust denier. Human rights groups and anti-racism organizations have condemned his presence in politics. His latest trial for incitement to racial hatred s ‘opens this month following a TV appearance last year, in which it called unaccompanied migrant children’ thieves, killers and rapists’. “ enumerates The Guardian, adding that Eric Zemmour has “claimed that immigration and Islam would destroy the country and warned of a ‘race war’, […] that the ‘white heterosexual male’ was threatened by ethnic minorities and by a so-called ‘gay lobby’ “.

The Daily Mail for his part noted that “over the past few months he has made headlines by pointing to a gun on a reporter, by giving a middle finger to a rowdy woman, and by being dubbed the ‘French Trump’ “.

This last aspect also comes up in the American press, which points to comparisons between the candidacy of Eric Zemmour and that of Donald Trump. “He passed himself off as a Donald Trump provocateur, throwing politically incorrect bombs” valued The New York Times. Eric Zemmour’s books and column on C-News, described as “a news channel at Fox news” by the American newspaper, allowed him to express his ideas and his vision of France “in front of hundreds of thousands of people”.

Same observation on the side of Washington post. It is “Zemmour’s provocative style”, like the recent controversy sparked by his declaration on foreign-sounding first names, which allows him to be compared to “strategies and feelings that allowed Donald Trump to win the presidency of the United States”.