(Bordeaux) The polemicist Éric Zemmour, who does not hide his presidential ambitions, but has not yet declared himself a candidate for 2022, is considering a first campaign rally in December, AFP learned on Friday from his entourage.
“We are considering a first campaign meeting in December,” said his entourage, who mentioned several rooms for this public meeting, such as the Zenith in Paris, with a capacity of nearly 7,000 seats.
Another source close to Eric Zemmour assures that the probable contender for the Elysee will be at the Zénith on December 5, while the Republicans party must hold its congress, which will nominate its presidential candidate, from 1er to December 4.
However, the announcement of the candidacy itself will not take place at the rally, but before it, according to this close source.
On the form that the announcement of candidacy will take, Eric Zemmour wished it “sufficiently effective, relevant, impactful, so that millions and millions of people understand what I mean” and “do”, during a press point Friday in Bordeaux, where he was to give a conference in the evening.
On the date of this announcement, he indicated that the media would be “warned sufficiently in advance”.
The putative candidate, summoned to appear in court on Wednesday for remarks targeting unaccompanied minors, must still go to London on November 19 and 20, to Geneva on 24-25, and to Marseille, without a public meeting, on the 26th, as well. only in Strasbourg on December 3.
The far-right polemicist explained that the 5e République was “a quasi-monarchical regime” and that the presidential election was “a man who presents himself to the people without a party, and who asks the people,“ do you want me as a republican king ””.
“I want to be the Republican king if I present myself”, he said, specifying that he is surrounded by “a formidable team, of a very high intellectual level, […] that I wish on all candidates ”.
About the RN candidate Marine Le Pen, whom he follows or even exceeds in the polls, he said that “she is the cats, me is the books” and that he wanted “to return the law of voting to RN voters ”.
He finally compared the debate of the LR candidates on Monday to “a meeting of anonymous alcoholics who explain to us how they will eliminate alcohol except that they are responsible for this blood alcohol level”.
In the evening, the putative candidate gave an economy-focused speech to some 1,300 supporters gathered at the Palais des Congrès – 800 people were unable to enter and remained outside.
About 150 people demonstrated at the same time about a kilometer away to oppose the polemicist’s conference.
The newspaper South West did not obtain accreditation for the conference, but was present at the press briefing, on the grounds that his coverage of Mr. Zemmour’s conference in Biarritz on October 26 “did not please”, told AFP Jean-Pierre Dorian, editor of the daily.