Eric Zemmour “represents exactly the idea that I have of what is necessary for France” indicates Saturday February 12 evening on franceinfo Lorrain de Saint Affrique, excluded from the National Front in 1994 and close to Jean-Marie Le Pen, who announced in an interview with the magazine Point his rallying to the far-right candidate.
franceinfo: What do you find in Eric Zemmour that you cannot find at the National Rally?
I was expelled from the National Front by Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1994 and I was never reinstated afterwards. It was a perpetual exclusion. I am not at all a dissident of the National Front or the National Rally. Time passes. I’ve known Eric Zemmour for 30 years, we know each other well, that’s one of the reasons why I joined. In 1986, Jean-Marie Le Pen said that “confidence cannot be described, it can be felt.” We have or we do not have confidence. I trust Eric Zemmour. Earlier I listened to his meeting at Saulieu: there is not a word that I would think I wanted to change. It represents exactly the idea that I have of what is necessary for France. I obviously want him to be successful, to be elected President of the Republic and, in one case, I have started a regular procedure to obtain the nomination for the legislative elections.
Do you have this nomination?
It is a process that is beginning. For a young organization like Reconquête which reaches incredible scores, we have exceeded 90,000 members, the method will count a lot. We must immediately play collective, we must not get into conflicts of ego and ambitions that would not correspond to the heat of this movement. I am waiting to go through the bodies that are being put in place. I will explain my project, my desire. I will situate the place where I wish to exercise this parliamentary mandate, at a time when the National Assembly, such as it can exist by the will of a president who would be Eric Zemmour, can play a completely different role. than those registry offices which have so far only accompanied the decline by legislative means.
Was it important to wait, to spread out the rallying announcements?
Villepinte’s speech [début décembre] played a very important role in my decision making. I was very impressed both by the audience and by the quality of Eric Zemmour’s speech. I had the feeling at that time that he had integrated and understood the codes of the presidential function. I remembered a somewhat opposite experience, when the friends of Marion Maréchal had brought together a thousand people within the framework of a convention of the right which was to illustrate the union of the rights, Eric Zemmour had disappointed me because his intervention was a little brutal, badly said, inefficient. And today I find someone who completely convinces me and who even manages to excite us.
There is no more brutality for you at Eric Zemmour?
I do not believe. He used strong markers for his campaign. Watching his meeting in Saulieu this Saturday, I had the feeling of a quiet and strong benevolence. He now enters the concrete life of the French, without losing this essential historical thread. He evoked the memory of Vauban. This connection, this continuity of the history of France to try to bring about its recovery, in the name of the greatest years. It seems to me to be an essential element to touch the hearts of the French people and to give its true dimension to this very special, so critical presidential campaign. It’s a pivotal campaign.
Referring to figures from the Old Regime when running for the presidency of the Republic, isn’t that problematic?
Many people think that France started in 1789. No, France did not stop in 1789 and neither did it start in 1789. The republican form of the regime is not questioned by Eric Zemmour. He ends his meetings with: “Long live the Republic, but above all, long live France!” The Republic is a regime, it is not in question, but above the Republic, there is France. As de Gaulle said, France without the French does not exist. The French of today, it is appropriate to ask them for the effort enabling them to rediscover the greatness of their own country and therefore their own greatness, their own civil peace, their own identity, all these themes that I find in the campaign by Eric Zemmour.