Home Brussels France’s Zemmour stumbles as he embarks on European tour

France’s Zemmour stumbles as he embarks on European tour

by editor

PARIS — When Eric Zemmour burst onto the European political scene with a high-profile meeting with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán in September, he set off a wave of speculation that he was overtaking Marine Le Pen as the new champion of the French far right.

But his planned European tour has been beset by upsets and cancellations.

The prestigious Royal Institution of London canceled an event scheduled for Friday over “due diligence” concerns. In Geneva, the city authorities refused to allow Zemmour to hold a conference in a plush restaurant next week. His team recently postponed a visit to Brussels over “diary issues.”

The hurdles come at a time when the presidential hopeful and rival to Le Pen has seen his poll ratings plateau after an earlier meteoric rise, according to POLITICO’s poll of polls.

Zemmour, who has not yet officially declared his candidacy, promises a radical approach to the European Union institutions if he is elected president. His plans include reintroducing border controls, suspending Schengen border-free rules for two years and, according to a member of his team in charge of European topics, ignoring rulings from the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union — despite France being bound to the latter — on issues such as immigration and government subsidies.

Currently, Emmanuel Macron is leading the field ahead of April’s presidential election while Le Pen and Zemmour appear to be neck-and-neck in the race for a spot in a run-off vote.

While Zemmour has long been an influential commentator on domestic television, he is a relative newcomer to French politics and his efforts to build a network of allies in Europe are in their early days. His attempts to build bridges have also put him on a collision course with Le Pen whose National Rally party has been working hard to build a populist, nationalist alliance across the EU.

Zemmour is now expected to travel to Brussels in January to meet business leaders and supporters in what is officially a promotional tour for his latest book “France has not said its last word,” according to his press team. One of the last times he visited Brussels was in 2015, when he gave two speeches. 

In Brussels, Zemmour appears to have a small but faithful circle of fans. 

One of them is Alain Destexhe, a former senator from the centre-right Mouvement Reformateur who failed to win elections after setting up a dissident right-wing party. Destexhe, who launched a Facebook group of Zemmour supporters, said: “He has supporters in the French community, but not among the pro-Europeans and federalists.”

Zemmour cancelled?

Zemmour was expecting to address several hundred people from London’s French-speaking community at a private event at the Royal Institution on Friday. The last-minute cancellation was a blow for his team, who say they will be suing the organization for damages.

“It’s obviously not the remit of a commercial conference space to decide whether Eric Zemmour has the right to express himself or not,” wrote one of his press officers. “In the land of freedom of speech, it’s ironic.”

In Geneva, the leftwing city council’s decision to ban Zemmour from speaking at the Eaux-Vives restaurant has sparked a debate over freedom of speech.

“That some people are dismayed by the visit of the possible presidential candidate is a sign of vitality,” according to an editorial in Le Temps. “But that the public authorities presume to have the right to censure the troublemaker … is a blow to our freedom of expression.”

Zemmour’s conference in London on Friday has been moved to a new venue. But things may not get easier as the campaign advances.

As a popular TV host and writer, Zemmour regularly holds sold-out conferences on identity and politics in France. But he has twice been convicted for inciting hatred and was on trial this week for calling unaccompanied foreign minors “thieves, murderers and rapists” on live television.

The reception abroad will be quite different to his treatment at home, said a National Rally heavyweight familiar with European politics.

“His criminal convictions don’t go down well abroad, particularly in Nordic countries or the Netherlands,” said the National Rally official, “in France, politicians face judicial charges all the time, people get used to it.”

Of course, the National Rally itself is not exempt from judicial troubles, with Le Pen charged with misuse of EU funds.

Alliance in the works

When Orbán welcomed Zemmour in Budapest and held talks with him in his office in September, it raised speculation back home that the TV celebrity was the new far-right force to be reckoned with.

Zemmour says he wants an alliance with the Visegrad Four — Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic — to protect what he calls the Christian, Greco-Roman identity of Europe. During his visit to Budapest, Zemmour praised Orbán for his “resistance to the spirit of the time, to all sorts of pressures from the European Commission, from the Germans and from Emmanuel Macron.”

But even on the rightwing European scene, steps towards supporting Zemmour appear timid.

The deputy spokesperson for Poland’s Law and Justice party, Radosław Fogiel, said he hoped “that more European politicians would share our opinions on Europe,” but would not be drawn into commenting on Zemmour’s ideas.

In Belgium, Assita Kanko, an MEP from the right-wing NVA party, wrote in De Tijd: “Zemmour is controversial, has a broad intellectual baggage and the gift of the gab. It is unique,” before adding that “do I agree with his provocations? No. Can I understand why people would vote for him? Yes. It will be exciting.”

A member of Zemmour’s team in charge of European affairs said building an alliance of nations in Europe was a worthy aim but not a priority.

“The EU is an albatross, but we can’t open too many battlefields,” said the adviser, “we are not going to tear the house down but focus on the priorities for France.”

Zemmour does not support a so-called Frexit but would follow Poland’s lead in challenging the primacy of EU legislation, and would ignore European legislation if it “prevented us from acting.”

Zosia Wanat and Esther Webber contributed reporting.

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