The meteoric rise of the Algeria-born media personality is causing disquiet within France’s Jewish establishment
The 63-year-old has overtaken Marine Le Pen — Jean-Marie’s daughter, and current leader of her father’s rebranded party — in polls that position him as President Emmanuel Macron’s closest challenger only six months before the next elections. In a dramatic twist, Le Pen senior, who has fallen out with his daughter over her attempts to make the party more electable, has spoken of backing her rival.
The meteoric rise of the Algeria-born media personality is causing disquiet within France’s Jewish establishment, which fears becoming associated with Zemmour’s hardline anti-immigration positions. But might some in the Jewish community support the right-wing star, and could he actually oust Macron from the Élysée Palace?
“The first thing to know about Zemmour is that he’s not some marginal figure; he was a high-profile commentator at the conservative Le Figaro paper, and C-News, a French equivalent of Fox News,” says Jean-Yves Camus, a Paris-based expert on extremism and longtime Mishpacha source. “About 20 years ago, he began writing about French decline, that the country was losing prestige and becoming a Muslim colony, longstanding ideas among conservatives who never came to terms with the loss of empire. He’s talked of repatriating non-citizens, but lately he’s sounding like Le Pen, saying that ending immigration would count as success.”
French Trump? Zemmour’s swift rise has drawn comparisons to that of Donald Trump, another media star who campaigned on an anti-establishment platform. “I think that he’s more similar to Stephen Miller, Trump’s ultra-conservative Jewish aide,” says Camus, who studied at an elite Paris university at the same time as Eric Zemmour. “Trump himself was a real outsider, whereas Zemmour has come from the heart of political journalism.”
Create a free account to keep reading.
