Éric Justin Léon Zemmour (; born 31 August 1958) is a French far-right politician, essayist, writer, political journalist and pundit. He was an editor and panelist on Face à l'Info, a daily show broadcast on CNews, from 2019 to 2021. He ran in the 2022 French presidential election, in which he placed fourth in the first round.
Born in the Parisian suburb of Montreuil, Zemmour studied at Sciences Po. He worked as a reporter for Le Quotidien de Paris from 1986 to 1996. He then joined Le Figaro, where he worked until 2021. Zemmour also became known as a television personality, appearing as a pundit or co-host on shows such as On n'est pas couché on France 2 (2006–2011) and Ça se dispute on I-Télé (2003–2014), as well as Zemmour et Naulleau (2011–2021), a weekly evening talk show on Paris Première, together with literary critic Éric Naulleau. Zemmour also worked for RTL from 2010 until 2019, first hosting the daily radio show, Z comme Zemmour, prior to joining Yves Calvi's morning news show as an analyst. His book The French Suicide (Le Suicide français) sold more than 500,000 copies in 2014.
Zemmour is well known for his controversial views regarding immigration and Islam in France. He is a proponent of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory contending that white people in France are being deliberately replaced by Muslims. Zemmour was fined for incitement to racial discrimination in 2011 and for incitement of hate against Muslims in 2018. He appealed the conviction before the European Court of Human Rights but he lost the appeal. He was acquitted six times of similar charges, in 2008, 2014 (twice), 2016, 2017 and 2019. Convictions in 2015 and 2020 were overturned on appeal.
Zemmour announced his candidacy for the 2022 French presidential election on 30 November 2021. On 5 December 2021, he launched Reconquête, a nationalist political party. In 2021, a New York Times article described Zemmour's views as "hard-line... on immigration, Islam's place in France and national identity", while he self-identifies as Gaullist and Bonapartist. During his presidential campaign, Zemmour advocated vast changes in France's political system. He endorsed Marine Le Pen for the second round.
Zemmour was a candidate for a parliamentary seat in the Saint-Tropez-centred 4th constituency of the Var department in the 2022 legislative election but was eliminated in the first round, placing third.
Life and career Early life and family Zemmour was born on 31 August 1958 in the Seine department, now part of Seine-Saint-Denis. According to Zemmour himself, his parents were Berber Jews, whose last name means olive tree in Berber. Although Arabic-speaking from French Algeria, they held French citizenship in accordance with the Crémieux Decree of 1870.7 January 2008, Les Grandes Gueules, : "I come from North Africa. My ancestors were Berber Jews. ... They lived with Arabs for 1,000 years." Éric Zemmour: "I am not asking for the francization of surnames" , Article in L'Express by Laurent Martinet, published on 11 March 2010: "I was born in Montreuil in Seine-Saint-Denis. I am therefore not an immigrant ... and my parents were French. But my origins are indeed Berber and my name does indeed mean 'olive tree' in Berber." They had moved to metropolitan France in 1952, before the Algerian War, alongside their parents and siblings. Upon their arrival in France, Zemmour's paternal grandparents, born Liaou and Messouka, took the names Justin and Rachel, and maternal grandmother, born Ourida, took her middle name Claire. Zemmour's maternal grandfather—who served as his namesake—was named Léon.
Zemmour's parents were Roger Zemmour, a paramedic, and Lucette, a housewife. His father was often absent and so he was principally raised by his mother and grandmother; he has since said that this helped him to forge his character, and that it was his mother who instilled in him drive and ambition for excellence. He has one younger brother, Jean-Luc.
Zemmour grew up first in Drancy and later in the Paris Château Rouge quarter. He was brought up in the Jewish faith. Although private about his faith, he follows the directions of the Halakha and attended synagogues frequently until the death of his father in 2013. He has stated that his Jewish name is "Moïse".
Education Zemmour attended Jewish private schools, École Lucien-de-Hirsh and École Yabné.Vincent Monnier, "Éric Zemmour, passé recomposé", Paris Obs, nos 364-2257, 7 February 2008. He graduated from the Institut d'études politiques de Paris in 1979. He subsequently failed twice (in 1980 and 1981) to gain admission to the École nationale d'administration (ÉNA). However, he later became member of the admissions committee of the school in 2006.
Personal life Zemmour has been married to Mylène Chichportich, a bankruptcy lawyer of Tunisian Jewish descent, since 1982. Chichportich maintains a low media profile and never comments on her husband's controversies. The couple has two sons and a daughter.
In 2021, Zemmour was alleged by French gossip magazines to have impregnated his chief campaign advisor, Sarah Knafo. He recognised her as his partner in January 2022. Knafo later denied ever having been pregnant.
In a 2014 interview with Le Point, Zemmour stated that although he does not believe in God, he keeps a kosher home and occasionally attends synagogue services on High Holy Days.
Political journalist
Zemmour began his career in 1986 on the politics desk at Le Quotidien de Paris, under the editorship of Philippe Tesson. After the newspaper went out of business in 1994, he became a lead writer at Info-Matin, where he stayed for a year. He joined Le Figaro in 1996 as a political journalist. During this period, Zemmour was also a freelancer for Marianne (1997) and for Valeurs actuelles (1999).Who's Who in France
According to Libération, Zemmour had called for a political union of the French right-wing parties during the 1990s, cultivating contacts with the founder and president of the National Front Jean-Marie Le Pen ("who Zemmour was unique amongst journalists in addressing as president"), as well as his rival, Bruno Mégret.
In 2009, Zemmour was moved by Le Figaro to Le Figaro Magazine, allegedly after making controversial statements in other media, but in fact, due to his salary being considered too high for his modest weekly output. He was moved back to Le Figaro as a permanent journalist in 2013, where he wrote regularly, including as a literary reviewer, until he took time off in September 2021 to promote his new book.
Zemmour was a political columnist at Le Spectacle du Monde, a monthly publication by the Valeurs Actuelles group, from 2013 until it ceased publication in July 2014.
Author
Zemmour has written biographies of Prime Minister Édouard Balladur (Balladur, immobile à grands pas, or "Balladur, Motionless With Great Strides") and President Jacques Chirac (L'Homme qui ne s'aimait pas, or "The Man Who Did Not Like Himself") along with political essays. Notably, in 2006 he published Le premier sexe ("The First Sex"), a book on what he considers to be the feminisation of society. He worked on the screenplay for the film Dans la peau de Jacques Chirac by Michel Royer and Karl Zéro, although the latter stated that Zemmour's writing was only used to a limited extent. L'infime regret de Karl Zéro [The tiny regret of Karl Zero] , interview with Carlos Gomez, published on 8 April 2008, in Le Journal du Dimanche
In 2008, he published Petit Frère, in a limited run of 63,000 copies, in which he criticised "antiracist angelism". In March 2010, with his book Mélancolie française ("French Melancholy"), which won the Prix du livre incorrect (), he considers alternate histories of France, that imagines if some events had not happened. Talk with the author by Christophe Dickès, Éric Zemmour : Mélancolie française ou l'idéal romain dans notre Histoire , on Canalacademie.com, uploaded 18 March 2010.
In 2014, Zemmour published Le Suicide français ("The French Suicide"), which sold over half a million copies and remains his best literary success to date. In it, he defends his thesis that the French nation-state has weakened since the 1970s, which he most notably attributes to the influence of the "May '68 generation".
In Destin français ("French Destiny"), published in 2018, he put events from his own life story in the context of various historical events. He once again addressed the history of France, as well as discussing the influence of Islam in France, which he sees as growing generally in French society.
His book La France n'a pas dit son dernier mot ("France Has Not Spoken Its Last Word"), released on 15 September 2021, made Zemmour an estimated €1.3 million in three weeks, according to Le Parisien, selling over 80,000 copies in the first four days and 165,000 copies in the first 3 weeks.
Television and radio personality Beginning in September 2003, he participated weekly on the show Ça se dispute on the 24-hour news channel i>Télé first alongside Christophe Barbier and later Nicolas Domenach. The channel decided to cancel the programme in December 2014, after Zemmour's comments on Islam in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The channel was later ordered to pay Zemmour €50,000 for wrongful breach of contract.
Zemmour also appeared on Vendredi pétantes on Canal+ until June 2006, and starting September 2006, he rejoined France 2 to participate on the show On n'est pas couché, hosted by Laurent Ruquier, accompanied by Michel Polac and then Éric Naulleau, where they were responsible for presenting honest criticism of films, books or most notably musical albums. During the show, their exchanges with cultural figures sometimes ended in clashes. On 27 May 2011, Ruquier announced in Le Parisien that he was replacing Zemmour and Naulleau with new contributors for the next season of On n'est pas couché.
Éric Zemmour was also a participant on the show L'Hebdo as an editorialist on Tempo, a channel for the overseas departments and territories; he was accompanied by, among others, sociologist Dominique Wolton. Finally, he was on the cable network Histoire on the show Le grand débat, hosted by Michel Field. Since 4 January 2010, he has presented a short piece on RTL entitled Z comme Zemmour every Monday and Friday, during which he presents topical news analysis. Since September 2011, he has hosted Zemmour et Naulleau alongside Éric Naulleau, an evening talk show on Paris Première. In 2021, Zemmour's show was receiving about 900,000 nightly viewers, ten times higher than in 2019.
In 2015, following the Charlie Hebdo shooting, Zemmour was temporarily placed under armed police protection."Eric Zemmour sous protection policière" [Eric Zemmour under police protection] , Le Figaro (in French), 15 January 2015. On 30 April 2020, Zemmour was insulted and threatened in Paris as he was walking by himself carrying bags of groceries. The incident was recorded by the perpetrator himself who posted the video on social media, boasting about his act as Zemmour was filmed ignoring the man and trying to walk away."Mehdi Korchi, l'agresseur d'Éric Zemmour, interpellé et déféré devant le parquet de Paris" [Mehdi Korchi, the assailant of Eric Zemmour, arrested and referred to the public prosecutor's office of Paris] , Valeurs actuelles (in French), 5 May 2020.