In the early days of fire We are not in bed, between 2006 and 2011, Laurent Ruquier and Eric Zemmour were side by side as host and columnist. In the night from Saturday to Sunday, they were face to face on the set ofWe are live.
The roles have been redistributed and Léa Salamé, co-presenter since the start of the school year, immediately asked the guest to specify his: “Who do we have in front of us tonight? A political columnist? A political commentator? A politician ? A presidential candidate? The main objective was to win the premiere of his official entry into the race for the Elysée. The duo of interviewers did not skimp on the raises, Eric Zemmour dodged each time, confining himself to confirming his “desire” to present his candidacy and his will to “choose his moment” to announce his decision.
The complicity of yesteryear will therefore not have been sufficient to convince the polemicist to deliver a scoop to the talk show of France 2. However, the links, even strongly weakened, between Laurent Ruquier and Eric Zemmour gave a singular dimension to the interview which lasted almost an hour. As evidenced by this lively exchange:
– Laurent Ruquier: You talk about your “media triumph at CNews”. Are you okay with your ankles, Eric? It’s a triumph over other news channels but, for example, Nagui at the same time, every evening on France 2, has three times the audience than you. You make 5%.
– Eric Zemmour: When I arrived, the time slot was 80,000 viewers, we are between 800,000 and 1 million every night. I call it a triumph. (…) It’s true that when I was with you, we did a lot more and that you now do less than me.
(…)
– Ruquier: Right now we have about the same number of viewers. Except you do them at 7 p.m. and we do them between midnight and 2 a.m. It is incomparable. What matters is market share: how many out of a hundred people watch TV? [à ce moment-là] are watching you. You make 5%, we do two or three times as much. We must respect the truth of the figures.
– Zemmour: No ! I only know the overall figures, excuse me.
– Ruquier: I hope it will be better and that Mr. Le Floch Prigent, ex-convict, will give you better advice on the economy.
– Zemmour: Le Floch Prigent has run businesses you can never run.
– Ruquier: No, but I, in any case, have never been to jail.
– Zemmour: Yes well pfff …
“You’ve known me for fifteen years, I feel like I’m still the same. I always say the same thing, which some people sometimes despair, ”Eric Zemmour replied to Léa Salamé’s first question a little earlier. “That is true,” reacted the host. I have been hearing the same thing for many years, which is even the reason why, after five years, I had had enough. It took me a little while to understand what you were saying. Too much, maybe. “
This remorse is nothing new. In 2015, Laurent Ruquier – moreover questioned on the subject by Léa Salamé – made his mea culpa for having recruited Eric Zemmour as a columnist: “I regret it, because I realize that I participated in the trivialization of these ideas. -the. “
“Why would I have gay activists around me?” “
If the interview of this night leaves the traditional framework of the political interview which one is used to on French television, it is because the host was not spared by his former collaborator. He was able to confront him and answer him.
In the self-published book which he promotes, France has not said its last word, Eric Zemmour talks aboutWe are not in bed. He describes Laurent Ruquier and his former producer Catherine Barma as “Thénardier” and explains why, according to him, he ended up being excluded from the talk show. “The reasons why I separated from you, it is not at all what you write,” corrected the host, quoting an excerpt: “He was chomping at the bit for months. His table is assailed every evening by a court of left-wing sores and gay activists, all this small Parisian milieu scandalized for a long time by my provocations. “This statement ulcerated the main concerned:” But how do you know who I invite to my table in the evening? And why would I have gay activists around me? “
“When we listen to you, we want to be a little more militant”
Evasive response from Eric Zemmour: “People talk a lot in Paris, you know. “” I do not know who told you that, but it proves that you do not read most of the reports of gay associations who are angry with me for not being militant enough or “communitarian”, as you do not like that. we are. It is true that when we listen to you, we want to be a little more, ”continued Laurent Ruquier, no doubt referring to the report of the AJL * – association of which the author of this article is a member – on Big Heads.
In his book, Eric Zemmour also relates his arrival in We are not in bed in the fall of 2014 when he was attacked by Xavier Dolan and the actress Anne Dorval, then in full promotion of Mommy. “I swear Eric, it disappoints me a lot to read things like that, confided Laurent Ruquier before reading the extract in question:” She was accompanied by her director, a young ephebe with a tormented look who, if I ‘I believed Ruquier’s laudatory portrayal of him had genius simply because he was gay. ” That is to say, I would invite a director on this set just because he is gay! ? “, Choked the host.
“This is not what I write, you misunderstand me”, slipped the former columnist. “Yes, that’s what is written,” insisted the presenter before Léa Salamé intervened: “He’s an excellent director! Who cares if he’s gay or not. “” We don’t care because we only talk about that. You do not even realize how much you are the vehicle of the dominant ideology “, replied Eric Zemmour – who will be made lie a little later by affirming:” If you saw the polls, it is you who are marginal. 70% of French people think like me. “
“By reading your book, we understand who lives in a bubble”
For him, Laurent Ruquier’s broadcasts “are eminently political. There is always the promotion of minorities, of political correctness, of all this ideology, you promote it. “You have never looked reality in the face since I have known you,” he said to his former employer towards the end of the interview. “It’s always your answer: ‘We live in a small environment, in a bubble.’ When you read your book, you understand who lives in a bubble and in a small environment, believe me, ”replied the host ofWe are live.
“We are going to make Eric Zemmour react to all the electoral posters which flourish in Paris, announced Laurent Ruquier last week in the columns of the Parisian. It’s still fun to see that, especially when I think ten years ago this guy was on my set. I feel like it’s a joke. “That night on the France 2 talk show, the laughter was especially tense.