Presidential election 2022: behind Eric Zemmour, the indispensable Sarah Knafo – archyde

She is a step behind him, tense, focused, smiling amidst the cameras and “Zemmour president! “ that the crowd chants. A little scared by everyone, but delighted, conqueror, and as exhausted as him at the end of the big meeting that the almost candidate held on September 18 in Nice. Sarah Knafo is everywhere. Alongside Eric Zemmour when he is going to sign his latest book, in the front row when he is on stage, ready to scribble a message on a piece of paper when he stumbles on a name.

The 28-year-old enarch is not just a shadow advisor; she is at the same time the companion of the far-right polemicist, his right-hand man and his campaign manager. She is hardly surrounded: attracted by the light, she claims to stay in the shadows. She spends time with journalists but refuses to appear at all costs. She takes care of her story; she, whose curriculum vitae is brilliant, could not help but embellish it, perfectly controlling her image. Her social media history has been erased, from tender photos from November 2013 with Louis Sarkozy when she was 20 to questionable Roma jokes posted on her Facebook account.

Ambitious, the young woman has always known how to slip in the wake of men in middle age, with confirmed notoriety and with a well-filled address book; seniors fascinated by his charm, his intelligence, his youth and his aplomb. Sarah Knafo evolves in the very closed environment of the high administration, decision-makers who above all do not want to be cited, because of their duty of reserve, but also out of spite of having discovered, a little late, that the one they had Brood is now the partner of an essayist convicted of inciting racial hatred.

Zemmour existed long before Knafo. But since the fall of 2019, it has been the centerpiece of its system. From February, it has been piloting pro-Zemmour initiatives, filtering recruitments, putting volunteers in contact, developing the media plan, distilling the official story to journalists … A skilfully orchestrated staging, far from the spontaneous emergence of a deus ex machina uniting the right and the far right. His strong point: exceptional interpersonal skills, ease in moving in various environments, which have earned him unexpected networks. Coming Sarah Knafo, however, can change her tone in a flash. A friend of Eric Zemmour talks about this campaign held with an iron fist: beware of anyone who has a wrong word, otherwise “Her head rolls under Sarah’s anger”.

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