Crowd Size Blues
It should have been a good week for Éric Zemmour.
The right-wing television commentator and author, who declared his candidacy for the presidency in late November, had won yet another prominent member of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party (RN) to his side. Nicolas Bay, an RN member of the European Parliament (MEP), was expelled from the party before he could quit, on the charge that he had been passing strategic campaign information to Zemmour. (He is suing, or planning to sue, for defamation.) Just before that had come an angry departure by Stéphane Ravier, the only RN senator; and of several other prominent figures (MEPs Jérôme Rivière, Maxette Pirbakas, Gilbert Collard, all of the RN party; and National Assembly deputy Guillaume Peltier, formerly of the National Front, most recently of Les Républicains). There are continuing rumors that Marine Le Pen’s niece, Marion Maréchal, will endorse Zemmour, thus adding another chapter to the Le Pen family psychodrama.
And last week Zemmour had also spoken with Donald Trump, in a phone call that lasted between 32 and 40 minutes. There was no endorsement, but the conversation has been described by his new spokesman Guillaume Peltier as “long and friendly”: Trump reportedly told him to “stand his ground, hang in there and keep his spirits up.” (Peltier said that Trump also told him that “tenacity and stamina” will pay off; the word choice seems unlikely.) The campaign’s official statement said that the call had covered “migration, security, and economic issues,” adding that “Donald Trump wants the US to remain the US, and Eric Zemmour wants France to remain France.”
Zemmour, as this indicates, has made “the Great Replacement,” the idea that migrants from the global south are swiftly “replacing” the traditional European stock of the country, the central theme of his campaign. Mostly Muslim, they are also putting the traditional culture and Catholicism of France on the defensive. Zemmour is also an admirer of Viktor Orbán of Hungary, who built a fence along his border with Serbia to keep migrants out, and who shares his concern with the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere; Zemmour has argued for the European Union to build a wall along “all its borders” to keep immigrants out. Zemmour has even referred to migrant children as “thieves, killers, and rapists,” en hommage to the man whose 2016 victory he wants to emulate.
The Mont-Saint-Michel rally, then, should have been a natural culmination of this very good week. Mont-Saint-Michel is a fortress-abbey dating from the 8th century, built on a small island about a kilometer off the northwest coast of Normandy. At high tide the island is cut off from the mainland. It has been named a world heritage site.
The location was particularly appropriate for Zemmour, because it allowed him to combine, in an organic way, the themes of Catholicism and defense. The stage had been positioned to frame a distant Mont-Saint-Michel behind the podium. There were two giant screens on either side, first with the sign “Rester français” (Remain French), alternating with Reconquête, the name of his new party; otherwise they broadcast the speaker. The link for the livestream is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3e4dx_4zoI.
The music starts, at first playing the classic John Barry instrumental used in all James Bond movies: https://youtu.be/ye8KvYKn9-0
It is the introduction for Nicolas Bay, the newest high profile convert, and a regional councilor in Normandy. He begins with a Bond-themed joke: he is not a “double agent” for her Majesty, in reference to the RN accusation against him. He notes that this is an emotional day for him, his first appearance with Zemmour, and indeed his delivery is a bit awkward. But he hits the main themes–immigration; the French worker “despoiled of the fruits of our labor” by a bureaucratic state. The crowd boos when he mentions the press, which is against Zemmour, as they all know. The elites run France–”the bobos (latte liberals), the wokeistes, the décolonialistes, the islamistes.” He finishes and leaves the stage.
The next music is edgy, neo-baroque; https://youtu.be/8-X_J36zxeg–it isn’t this, but like this, then it changes to emotional, propulsive “trailer music” (as in movie trailers), like this: https://youtu.be/UzPBeLIZDxU.
Zemmour walks through the crowd, shaking a few hands, surrounded by security. He references Mont-Saint-Michel, one of the oldest Christian holy places in France; Saint Michael, he adds, is the patron saint of paratroopers–because this is primarily a speech about the military.
Zemmour fully embraces the vision of Charles De Gaulle, founder of the French Fifth Republic; he wants to build “le Gaullisme de Reconquête.” De Gaulle’s legacy to the French was an independent nuclear deterrence; he refused to allow France to be subservient to either of the great powers of the Cold War. (In 1967, De Gaulle had pulled French forces out of the integrated NATO structure; Sarkozy restored full military cooperation.) Europe, says Zemmour, is merely a “phantom” military power; Donald Trump had the vision to see that. They must defend themselves, for the US will not protect them.
Then he starts on Macron, who wants to be the good friend of Biden, Trudeau, Merkel, only to get humiliated by AUKUS (the Australian submarine deal). Zemmour visited the troops in Côte d’Ivoire on Christmas Eve (a part of the Barkhane mission in the Sahel). Our soldiers, he says, are suffering for lack of supplies, for the head of state’s lack of a strategic vision.
France, he continues, is a small country geographically, but has a devoir de puissance–a duty of power. He will increase military spending in all areas; the army budget, for example, currently about 50 billion, will rise to 70 billion by 2030. He will achieve this by means of two familiar old friends, the elimination of waste and reform of the bureaucracy. France will not buy American weapons, but will make their own. Macron recently announced the building of new reactors, mockingly dismissed here as a paltry effort; Zemmour will make nuclear energy the center of France’s energy policy.
He begins to shout, signaling the end of the speech. Bay and other followers come up on stage, and they sing the Marseillaise. Then music, the usual cheerful techno, as they disperse. Like this: https://youtu.be/m8eQhDqUaxk
The problem was the crowd. Or the lack of one. AFP estimated 1,000, thus multiplying by a factor of five; the campaign said 2,000. The event was, however, livestreamed, and there was no way to hide. (And no one, apparently, had advised the cameraman against panning shots.) Le Monde’s article on the rally, here, included a photo taken from the back, which did much to explain the oddly random groupings in the crowd, as they tried not to stand in deep puddles. And photos began to appear on twitter.
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Benjamin Dodman, “‘’Hang in there’: French far-right candidate Zemmour touts encouragement from Trump,” France24, February 15, 2022. (Dodman doesn’t talk about Orban). https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20220215-hang-in-there-french-far-right-candidate-zemmour-touts-encouragement-from-trump
“French far-right presidential candidate Zemmour convicted for racist hate speech,” France24, January 1, 2022. https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220117-french-far-right-presidential-candidate-zemmour-convicted-for-racist-hate-speech
Le Monde avec AFP, “Eric Zemmour s’affiche avec Nicolas Bay, dernier transfuge en date du RN, et vante sa vision de la ‘puissance française’ au Mont-Saint-Michel,” Le Monde, February 19, 2022. https://www.lemonde.fr/election-presidentielle-2022/article/2022/02/19/eric-zemmour-s-affiche-avec-nicolas-bay-transfuge-du-rn-en-normandie_6114412_6059010.html
Header Image from Shutterstock.com.
