Eric Zemmour: Meet the right-wing TV pundit set to shake up France's presidential race. on Éric Zemmour

“Eric Zemmour became a television celebrity for his ability to debate. He is a polemicist who's renowned for his extensive culture and his very good ability to defend and communicate his ideas. And he first had the reputation of someone who has a passion for oratorical jousting.”

“Eric Zemmour is a writer, a journalist who, for twenty years, has been alerting the public opinion and our leaders to the fact that our country cannot cope with a completely deregulated immigration like the one we have known for decades; that security is the first of freedoms; that figures for petty crimes, attacks on property and people are skyrocketing and that soon, in France, we will have a serious problem with that.”

“I would add that Eric Zemmour is rather largely what one calls a declinist, that is to say, the idea that France was better off before and that the power of France, the support and respect that France inspires abroad, its influence in international relations have only declined. And that without a surge of national spirit, France is poised to disappear.”

“Very clearly, he is someone who is very much to the right of the political spectrum, both on the socio-economic axis and on the cultural axis.”

“I think Les Républicains should give their support to Eric Zemmour in a very formal way, because Les Républicains voters have long been waiting for someone like him on immigration, justice and security issues.”

“Zemmour, as an individual, has never campaigned on the far right. He was never a member of the National Front. He calls himself a Gaullist.”

“Eric Zemmour is not a politician. Eric Zemmour is someone who talks about the country, its difficulties and its future. And he is very successful, precisely because he speaks about the reality of our country without using the doublespeak of our politicians.”

“The real question is whether [Zemmour's rise in the poll] is a media bubble which is linked to his overexposure in the media -- an overexposure which is likely to continue -- or if it is a real, deeper phenomenon which sees Marine Le Pen losing voters due to a fatigue after her party repeatedly failed to conquer power”

“The oratorical talent of Eric Zemmour, whom everyone recognises, could appear to some voters as something that Marine Le Pen does not know how to do, or no longer knows how to do.”

“Marine Le Pen continues to have the support of working-class categories, especially precarious, young working poor voters, whereas Eric Zemmour, for the moment, is rather a candidate supported by men with rather bourgeois socio-economic positions, certain fringes of business circles, craftsmen, shop owners and older voters”