
French Presidential Candidate’s Controversial Xmas Message Is Inspiring the American Right
French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour gave a Christmas speech that excited some on the American right.
SO WHAT
Zemmour is the new “it” guy among U.S. populist nationalists.
THE SPEECH
A bestselling French author and media personality, Zemmour delivered a solstitial ode to Western civilization.
My dear countrymen, my friends:
Tonight, Christianity celebrates Christmas. But not only Christianity. For one need not be Christian to celebrate Christmas. It suffices to love the West in general, and France in particular.— malmesburyman (@malmesburyman) December 24, 2021
“The night of Christmas Eve begins the celebration of a civilization — ours — that has enlightened human history. A civilization that believes man is absolutely free, whatever his birth, his past, his environment, his path,” Zemmour said in the campaign video.
- “A civilization that believes man is absolutely free, whatever his birth, his past, his environment, his path.”
THE REACTION
On the right: Zemmour’s Christmas speech resonated with “new right” figures, such as The American Conservative senior editor Rod Dreher.
I'm a bit late to this, but did you read or hear @ZemmourEric's Christmas address? It is astonishing! There is not one US politician w/the confidence and conviction to give a speech like this. May God bless this Jewish brother! https://t.co/EmwUo1TsoI
— Rod Dreher (@roddreher) December 27, 2021
“Can you think of a single American politician capable of giving a speech like this?” Dreher wrote. “Can you think of a single American politician of the Right who has the courage to risk the wrath of the media by giving a speech like this at Christmas?”
- “Will a brave French Jew be the leader to save the Christian West?” tweeted Steve Cortes, a self-described “American nationalist” and ally of former Trump aide Steve Bannon.
THE DEBATE
U.S. nationalists in the know were eagerly watching Zemmour’s rise for years prior to his campaign launch early last month.
- “The biggest polemical gun of the Right is Éric Zemmour, author of Le Suicide Français, for many months the bestselling book in France,” wrote Scott McConnell, The American Conservative founding editor, in 2019.
- “He is a Jew whose refugee parents fled Algeria, a man who likely knows more French history than anyone else who appears on the country’s airwaves. He has knack for going up to the edge of what is considered acceptable discourse.”
From the left: Despite Zemmour’s Algerian Jewish background and polished presentation, he has been widely condemned on the American left as another racist European nationalist.
- The New York Review of Books columnist James McAuley recently called Zemmour a “professional provocateur” and “a virulent Islamophobe” and concluded, “the far-right French presidential candidate offers a crude exaggeration of what many in France believe but few dare to admit.”
Zemmour is a proponent of the white nationalist "Great replacement" conspiracy theory, having claimed that a “population that is from the Maghreb, African & mostly Muslim” are replacing the "French, white, Christian, of Greco-Roman culture."https://t.co/AZXzspV0vn
— The Bridge Initiative (@bridgeinit) December 3, 2021
BACK IN FRANCE
Zemmour has been repeatedly investigated, and twice convicted, for incendiary remarks about immigration and Islam, which he has argued is incompatible with French values.
🚨🚨The French government will move to block five of the world's major porn sites (Pornhub, xHamster, XVideos, XNXX and Tukif ) starting tomorrow unless they introduce protective measures to ensure all users are aged 18 or over.https://t.co/lzmNktxeD0
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) December 28, 2021
But, even if Zemmour loses the presidential election, he has contributed to France’s rightward drift.