“We want to take care of people struggling in the countryside.“This is the message of several executives of the Reconquest party of Éric Zemmour who were at a meeting in Haute-Loire this Thursday evening. About 300 people gathered at the Palais des Congrès from Vals-près-le-Puy, just next to Le Puy-en-Velay. Among the headliners of the evening, Benjamin Cauchy, ex-yellow vest and now speaker of the Reconquest party, Stanislas Rigault, president of Génération Zemmour, and Sébastien Pilard, former regional councilor Les Républicains des Pays de la Loire, who came to replace Guillaume Peltier, vice-president of Reconquest, who was supposed to be present but who had to canceltoo busy trying to find the necessary elected sponsorships for its candidate to run for president.
Stop immigration altogether
In the room, French flags float in the air, some brandish signs “Well let’s see”, which has become the slogan of Éric Zemmour’s activists. Others wear “Zemmour 2022” T-shirts and caps and listen to the candidate’s proposals through his relatives: revitalize rural areas by introducing a bonus of 10,000 euros for children born therepay 1,000 doctors to fight against medical deserts, but also completely stop immigration or even put the homeless in the HLM occupied today by “people of foreign origin.”
Éric Zemmour, “he speaks cash and he is frank”
“It takes our guts because it’s our convictions“, explains Chantal at the end of the meeting. “This is what we have been waiting for for a long time, subjects that can be discussed without being called racist or xenophobic. It corresponds to a reality so it’s normal that we can talk about it… whereas before we couldn’t say it.“A little further on, Christian and his wife Fabienne confide that they came “to see”.Before I voted RN, but hey… they are policed, it has become a party like the others“, loose this inhabitant of Coubon. “I’m more of the Animalist Party“, explains his wife. “So there, I haven’t yet had Éric Zemmour’s position on hunting and animals, I’m waiting to see. But on other issues like safety, he talks cash and he’s outspoken.”
Reconquest on the lands of Laurent Wauquiez
Regarding sponsorships, Reconquest teams are quite confident. “We are at 415, but we remain vigilant“, explains Benjamin Cauchy, speaker of the party, who also took advantage of his visit to Haute-Loire to talk about the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. “We have many affinities and convictions with Laurent Wauquiez. I think that there is not the shadow of a sheet of cigarette paper between Reconquest and the political positions taken by Laurent Wauquiez in the region. Besides, he works very well. He showed that he was capable of gathering around an assumed line. So, I hope that the coming weeks will allow us to cross paths with Laurent Wauquiez again..” But unlike François-Xavier Bellamy, a member of the Republicans who chose to sponsor Zemmour, the President of the Region finally granted his signature to Valérie Pécresseaccording to the list published this Thursday by the Constitutional Council.
A few hundred meters from the Palais des Congrès, around forty opponents met at the call of the anti-fascist network 43 “to block Zemmour”. They distributed leaflets at the Géant Casino roundabout and raised their voices in the parking lot of the Palais des Congrès just before the start of the meeting.
– Tommy Cattaneo.