As of: December 6th, 2021 8:01 am
Flying chairs and several injured: In Paris, during an election campaign appearance of the right-wing extremist presidential candidate Zemmour, tumult broke out. This suffered a slight injury.
At an appearance by the right-wing extremist publicist Éric Zemmour, who is running for the presidential election in France, protests and violent clashes broke out on Sunday.
In the event hall in Villepinte near Paris, there were tumults between opponents and supporters of Zemmour. Video recordings showed people attacking each other with fists and chairs.
Zemmour slightly injured
According to his team, Zemmour was slightly injured. As an employee of the French presidential candidate told the AFP news agency, the 63-year-old suffered a wrist injury when a man forcibly grabbed him on the way to the stage.
As the organization “SOS Racisme” announced in the evening, several of its members were injured. They got up in the hall and wore T-shirts with the words “No to racism” on. They were then beaten and chairs thrown at them.
One of the participants then stood with a blood-smeared head in front of a camera in front of the building. There were further protests there. A police presence managed to keep the counter-demonstrators at a distance, as could be seen on television pictures. In Paris itself, around 2,200 people demonstrated against Zemmour without incidents.
Éric Zemmour speaks at an election campaign appearance in Paris.
Image: REUTERS
Zemmour: a “fight bigger than us”
At the start of Zemmour’s election campaign, more than 10,000 supporters of the extremist gathered in the exhibition hall, where he announced the name of his new movement, “Reconquête”. France is on the brink of the abyss and the existence of the French is threatened, and a “bigger fight than us” is necessary to save the country, said Zemmour.
The right-wing extremist author complained that he was being persecuted by a “pack of politicians, journalists and jihadists” and that his opponents had labeled him a “fascist, racist and misogynist”. “If I win, it will be the beginning of the reconquest of the most beautiful country in the world,” said Zemmour.
Zemmour already convicted twice
The publicist sometimes represents extremely anti-migration and nationalist positions and has therefore already been convicted twice for sedition. For weeks he has been stirring up the pre-election campaign in France. On Tuesday, he finally announced that he would run for the presidential election in April 2022.
The former journalist, who comes from an Algerian-Jewish family, is given the chance to make it into the runoff election against incumbent Emmanuel Macron instead of right-wing populist Marine Le Pen. In the polls, he had temporarily overtaken Le Pen, who was defeated by Macron in the runoff election in 2017. Recently, however, his campaign stalled. Macron, who is very likely to run again, is currently considered a favorite for the presidency.