In the studio of What an era! this Saturday, March 18, 2023, the atmosphere was quite tense. Faithful to the post, Christophe Dechavanne was around the table near Léa Salamé, and alongside Patrick Bruel, one of the guests of the evening. Then comes the time for political debate with the arrival of Eric Zemmour, long absent from media platforms, since his debacle in the presidential elections. The President of Reconquest! returns with a final work, I didn’t say my last word, where he discusses his race at the Elysées but also looks back on his many meetings. Among these, Léa Salamé is interested in Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The former journalist and columnist of Laurent Ruquier then responds “we were good friends”knowledge of “30 years”. But this last “would surely say the opposite”. And to add in a tackle: “People on the left are much more bigoted than people on the right.” Léa Salamé then replies: “He wasn’t really bigoted, since he was coming to your birthday.” To which Eric Zemmour responds: “It was in private”. And Patrick Bruel to underline: “It apparently isn’t anymore.” Triggering laughter. And the politician to explain himself: “That’s the particularity of my book. As I was a journalist and a presidential candidate, I’ve seen things that journalists will never see, and I say things that politicians will never say.This is the particularity of my book”, he tries to convince.
️ “With @JLMelenchonwe are good friends” teaches us @ZemmourEric#QuelleEpoque@France2tv@LeaSalamepic.twitter.com/TtDDppc2VI
– What an era! (@QuelleEpoqueOff) March 19, 2023
“I think there’s something wrong with his head”
For his part, invited by the show The Grand Jury on LCI-RTL, Jean-Luc Mélenchon was obviously invited to respond to the assertions of Eric Zemmour. As usual, the leader of La France Insoumise did not mince words: “I learned that Eric Zemmour was doing the kéké in a show where he says ‘Ah I haven’t had a better friend than Mélenchon’, no, so let’s put things straight…” launches the politician before being interrupted by a question aimed at refocusing the discussion: “He goes further, he recounts the advice you would have given him on the importance of the polls and on the importance also of being the most radical because, according to Eric Zemmour, you would have succeeded in sucking up the electorate like that. by Benoit Hamon. Do you confirm these conversations? throws the journalist at him.
Visibly grumpy, Jean-Luc Mélenchon drops outright: “You reproduce this gossip…you give it substance, but let me tell the story, it’s more crunchy than that. At the time, and I’m not from the last season, 20 or 30 years ago, Mr. Zemmour was a journalist for Le Figaro and he was respected. For what ? He was cultured, he was easy to approach and then among the Pieds-noirs we talked to each other… well, so at the time YES I was talking to him. One day, he invites me to his birthday, can you imagine, and all my friends were telling me ‘it’s enough that you’re sectarian like that, it’s because he’s at Le Figaro, and I say to everyone who’s listening : never go to dinner, lunch or a birthday with a journalist, you risk finding him a fascist candidate in an election, so don’t make the same mistake as me! I went to his birthday and there I said to myself ‘This guy is crazy!’ For what ? There were grenadiers dressed in Napoleonic uniforms in front of the door and when we brought the birthday cake, there were all kinds of personalities who were there, he began to fire the cannon to his glory! I said to myself ‘this guy will never see me again, I think there is something wrong in his head’.” And to end its long story with: “I’m not his friend, I hate this guy, he’s conspiring against the unity of this country with this gross Islamophobia he continually expresses that disgusts me. So why is he talking about me: because today, if you want to make clicks, put Mélenchon in your title, for anything ‘I eat comma herring like Mélenchon’ and tac you have clicks!”.
VF
“I learned that Eric Zemmour was the kéké on TV sets (…) At the time, when he was a journalist, yes, I spoke to him!”, Answers @JLMelenchonleader of rebellious France, in #TheGrandJurypic.twitter.com/aLOmIvc49M
— LCI (@LCI) March 19, 2023