Straw hat “Summer University Reconquest! on the head, Flora, a science student, went to the borders of the Var and the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence “to meet other young people who have the same ideas as me. In my milieu, there are only leftists,” regrets this young PhD student who lives year-round in Quebec City.
Like Flora, there were several thousand people – 7,000 according to the organization which expected 5,000 – of all ages to attend Eric Zemmour’s back-to-school meeting at the end of his Reconquest! party’s summer school. “You are sending a brilliant signal: that of our vitality”, rejoiced the ex-controversy of the extreme right.
Show that Reconquest! breathe again, such was the issue, after the electoral failures of the spring, in the presidential (7.07%) and legislative (zero deputy), and a change of status, acquiesced 96% by the 32,000 voters, but which caused a stir among some former party cadres. “I had this worry, that Reconquest! can’t leave,” says Thierry, a member from Bordeaux. Here he is now “very reassured”, he expresses under his cap “Well let’s see”.
Throughout his hour-long speech, Eric Zemmour alternated sequences around his favorite themes articulated around current events (Islam and security with Imam Iquioussen, the denunciation of “Wokism”, the sovereignty with energy), making the passage copiously whistle by the assembly heated to white by a blazing sun his political adversaries – with the notorious exception of Marine Le Pen.
Because if the time of the electoral campaign a few blows were exchanged, even sometimes in the literal sense between militants, the hour is with the appeasement and “with the construction” of the party, one tries to explain on the side of the new executive leadership of the party (Marion Maréchal, Guillaume Peltier, Nicolas Bay). With the next elections in sight, the Europeans which is a full proportional vote, a voting method which could allow them to send a few deputies to Strasbourg.
All eyes on Italy
With, also, the firm idea that “constancy will eventually pay off”, as evidenced by the situation in Italy, where the neo-fascist party Fratelli d’Italia led by Giorgia Meloni has imposed itself at the head of the right-wing coalition (with the parties of Silvio Berlusconi and Mattéo Salvini) and dominates voting intentions in Italy for the general election on September 25 after having made 5% in 2019. A “model” regularly mentioned throughout this weekend, from Eric Zemmour in his speech, to the activists met, passing by the executives who put forward “their desire to unite”.
To carry out this project, which would like to bring together LRs and RNs, the concept of “civilizational right” has been put forward. A term combining the idea dear to Eric Zemmour of “clash of civilizations”, thesis developed in the mid-1990s by the American essayist Samuel Huntington. A book, however, absent from the stands present at the Domaine de Lineau, in the Var, where this highlight of the political re-entry of Reconquête took place!. On the shelves, after the books of Eric Zemmour, the star authors were called Renaud Camus or François Bousquet.
600 young people from Generation Zemmour trained
The difficulty for Eric Zemmour and his party, which claims 130,000 members, will be to continue to exist in the absence of elected officials and French electoral appointments. To circumvent this, the ex-candidate successively defeated in the presidential and legislative elections in the constituency of Saint-Tropez announced the launch of a network of “vigilant parents” in order to fight “against the great indoctrination in schools”, according to the former CNews star. “A poster, leaflet and digital campaign will be carried out,” he promised.
This summer school also made it possible to “train” some 600 young people from Génération Zemmour. Under the leadership of Marion Maréchal, they were able to attend “conferences on the economy, ecology, politics, security”, explains Christopher, a student who lives in Perpignan. “We also had self-defense lessons,” he added.
It remains to be seen whether this visibly successful time in the life of the party allows it to keep its troops mobilized until the next political deadlines and to (re)launch “its” reconquest after a complicated first year.