Pétain, “great replacement” … Muscular debate between candidate Éric Zemmour and Minister Bruno Le Maire – LCI

A courteous debate, although the tone was raised several times. Guest on the set of the show “Elysée 2022” on France 2, the presidential candidate Eric Zemmour debated, sometimes heatedly, with the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire Thursday evening. The opportunity to mark the opposition between the former polemicist and the executive in place, in particular on economic, historical and memorial issues and on Islam and secularism.

A bit technical, the exchanges between the two men have long focused on the economic program of the far-right candidate and his vision of the situation in France, affected by a “downgrading” that would be felt by “the French”. “The trade deficit could be 100 billion in deficit. France is not competitive, it is in deficit”, ruled Eric Zemmour, criticizing the balance sheet of public finances of the five-year Macron period and accusing his opponent of the evening of being a “Santa Claus”. “A little humility, do not take your big air when you talk about the debt! You have watered France”, the far-right candidate got carried away, before his interlocutor asked him to calm down.

In response, Bruno Le Maire defended the government’s economic results: “We have lowered income tax, we have increased participation, thanks to us, minimum wage earners already have their 13th month, which is excellent news. This is not the great downgrading, Mr. Zemmour, it is the great recovery of France (…) Twice as many industrial companies opened than closed this year, it had not happened for 20 years “.

The Minister of the Economy disputed the feasibility and cost of Eric Zemmour’s economic program, which notably contains tax cuts including the CSG (generalized social contribution). A measure which would be, according to Bruno Le Maire, likely to be challenged by the Constitutional Council in the name of the principle of equality of the French before tax. To which Eric Zemmour was content to oppose his intention to go through the referendum to bypass the institution.

The exchanges were then taken up a notch about Islam and the French identity. Bruno Le Maire criticized Eric Zemmour for sending a “slap in the face to French citizens” Muslims asking them to “choose between confession and France”.

For his part, Eric Zemmour considered that “Islam is not just a faith, it is also a code, Islamic laws. I say that you have to choose between Islamic laws, the code, the Sharia and the Republic”. Follower of the racist theory of “great replacement” European populations by immigrants, he criticized Bruno Le Maire for not “not see the demographic and political reality” from the country.

The debate was even more heated on the role of France under the Occupation. Bruno Le Maire accused Eric Zemmour of “rehabilitate the Vichy regime”, to do “by Pétain the defender of French Jews” and asked him if he would be ready to go back on the speech of the Vel d’Hiv by Jacques Chirac, in 1995, which recognized for the first time the responsibility of the State in the deportation of the Jews.

“I am not a Pétainist”, “I am absolutely not rehabilitating the Vichy regime”, corn “France was in London” with “General de Gaulle”, so “France has no responsibility for the Vel ‘d’Hiv roundup, it was the Germans who imposed it”, released Eric Zemmour, before concluding that he “would not do again” the 1995 speech.