With presidential and legislative elections approaching fast, France is facing substantial and unprecedented changes at home. The right-wing discourse whose roots were strengthened during Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency between 2007 and 2012, has gained popularity in the country. Back then, Sarkozy brought up the question of the French “national identity” with reference to “immigration.” He even created the Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Codevelopment, which was abolished in 2010. Ever since, the discourse of French right-wing politicians, media and extremists alike has become entangled in questions regarding national identity and immigration.
However, the left bloc is still trapped in the post-April 2002 moment due to the Jean-Marie Le Pen factor. Le Pen, who served as the chairperson of the National Rally (RN) from 1972 to 2011, imploded France’s fifth Republic political establishment. In 2002, he eliminated the Socialist Party (PS) candidate and former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and faced incumbent President Jacques Chirac in a run-off. Two decades later, the Le Pen dynasty has become the de facto politically-visible family in France as their xenophobic message continues to resonate in the bourgeois milieu in both the largest cities and rural towns. To some extent, Sarkozy did rehabilitate the national identity narrative, using it as an electoral tactic to “contain” Le Pen, who has led the RN since 2001, in the 2007 presidential election. As result, Le Pen came out strongly in the 2007 elections. In 2017, she made it to the finale like her father did in 2002 and faced current President Emmanuel Macron in a run-off.
The right and far-right parties in France have been radicalizing the entire theme of national identity and immigration. They have been ridiculing the integration progress implemented by the successive socialist governments in the 1980s and mid-1990s for millions of immigrants, particularly with regards to Arabs and Muslims. Now, there is Eric Zemmour, the controversial journalist who leads the Reconquete! (Reconquer!) party, as the rising star of the xenophobic circus in France. Zemmour is known for his anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric and is set to run for the next elections. Zemmour wants to reconquer what he calls vehemently “France’s Christian values.” This is why he preferred to choose a name for his party that rhymes with “Reconquista,” a term used to define the centurieslong Christian efforts to eliminate the existence of Muslims during the Al-Andalus period in the Iberian Peninsula.
Zemmour’s discourse confirms the political situation of Islamophobic discourse in the French right. Such that, in Macron’s cabinet, there are super hawkish, anti-Muslim voices such as the interior and education ministers. The arrogant conventional media is using Zemmour's character in order to remove the sociological and cultural context of the complex issues of immigration and religion. However, the critical issue must be tackled with a wise public policy and not fall victim to the pointless and senseless political debates of ignorant politicians.
Zemmour’s popularity in the right and far-right circles is a reflection of the failed immigration policy of Macron and his predecessors. In particular, amid the Benalla affair, the Yellow Vest protests and the poor management of the COVID-19 crisis, the French leader implemented surprisingly radical changes in policies relating to immigration and Islam. Today, like his opponents on the far-right front, he is willing to domesticate French Muslims in the name of the French Republic's sacrosanct laicite principles.
Zemmour, on the other hand, stands firmly against his far-right rival Le Pen. He was convicted for inciting racial hatred. He is an open proponent of the great replacement conspiracy theory. His political models are inspired by Napoleon Bonaparte and Gen. Charles De Gaulle. He is a sworn enemy of the RN extremists. He made provocative historical comments on several issues including Vichy France, the common name of the French state headed by Marshal Philippe Petain during World War II, who collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation of France in 1940 and 1944. “The regime protected French Jews,” he said.
It may sound interesting that Zemmour himself is a son of Jewish parents born in Algeria during the period of French colonization. There are questions over how far he would go to continue his provocation against his fellow French Jews. Yet, the question of national identity in politics that the French right and far-right parties are using in the ongoing debates has been questioning the very basis of France's “universalism” values.
The conservative parties, like the far-right ones, are buying deliberately into Zemmour’s dystopian discourse that Muslims in France are the main cause of suburban insecurity and that they hold anti-France, anti-Christian and anti-Jewish sentiments. For example, Valerie Pecresse, who is the chairperson of the Soyons Libres (SL) and the Republican candidate for the next elections, in lieu of combating Zemmour’s foolish message, is legitimizing his anti-Muslims and anti-immigration message on TV and radio shows. Do the first round’s presidential campaign imperatives impose this? The question will be answered on the night of April 10, 2022.
Zemmour’s sheer audacity has helped to legitimize far-right discourse among the public. His discourse that is full of hatred is becoming increasingly politically acceptable and his views in mainstream media are commonly becoming catchy headlines and punchlines.
In his first visit abroad as a declared presidential candidate, Zemmour visited Armenia, which he sees as a Christian nation in the middle of “an Islamic ocean.” He was accompanied by a Christian zealot and influential politician, Philippe de Villiers, who is the brother of Gen. Pierre de Villiers, Macron's former military chief-of-staff, a darling general of the Yellow Vests fringe and a nostalgic of French-Algeria and Le Pen’s deceived voters. Zemmour visited the monastery of Khor Virap, located near the Turkish border. He described the location as a historical clash between Christianity and Islam. “It is the great confrontation between Christianity and Islam, which is reborn today,” he said.
France is home to a sizeable Armenian diaspora, which represents a serious political and finance lobby in France and an important Christian electorate bloc alike. They vote conventionally for the right party of the Republicans (LR). Thus, the devoted French Christian voters show empathy to their coreligionist Eastern Christians.
Armenia is becoming the Mecca of the French right and far-right candidates. A few days after the visit, Pecresse made a pilgrimage journey to Armenia as well. This symbolic visit is a political campaign gesture as she is charming her right-wing practicing Catholic voters and seducing the Parisian bourgeois families and elite.
Currently, according to polls, Zemmour is far behind Macron, Pecresse and Le Pen. Will he end up making an electoral impact in the next two crucial elections? His label is already being set. The right and far-right’s campaign strategies (nationally and regionally stereotyping and scapegoating Muslims) already shape France’s politics.
Like former United States President Donald Trump, Zemmour has exploited the media to win over anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant voters who support his program. However, what he has done so far is to send France back to its shameful moments, where even rejectionists and racists don’t see themselves. The 63-year-old controversial candidate has created a “Trumpization” of the political process that is in progress in France because of his hostile rhetoric on disabled people, Islam and immigration. In one word: it is the modern inquisition.
