For three generations Melinda and Dylan's family from northern France has voted steadfastly for the far-right Le Pen family at elections; first Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the Front National, and more recently his daughter Marine Le Pen who is president of its successor party Rassemblement National. However, the decision on who to vote for has now been thrown into question by the presence of another far-right candidate in April's French presidential election, the polemicist Éric Zemmour. The dilemma, one faced by many voters across the country, threatens to divide the family. Lucie Delaporte reports.
Far-right French presidential election candidate Éric Zemmour said he agreed that Ukrainian refugees should be given visas to enter France 'if they have family' in the country, but that 'Arab or Muslim immigrants are too unlike us'.
The French presidential election is about to get underway in earnest with President Emmanuel Macron finally set to announce his candidature ahead of the elections in April. According to opinion polls his two main rivals are both from the far-right: the Rassemblement National president Marine Le Pen and maverick polemicist Éric Zemmour. Yet both are set to be embarrassed by the far-right's long-held support of Vladimir Putin at a time when Russia has just sparked outrage around the world by invading Ukraine. As historian Nicolas Lebourg reports, the two candidates will find it hard to reconcile the far-right's general support for Putin's regime and the risk of being seen as traitors to French national interests.
Marine Le Pen was dealt a blow when Marion Maréchal said that far-right rival Éric Zemmour was a better candidate than her aunt ahead of Aprils presidential election in France.
Last November, far-right polemicist Éric Zemmour, a newspaper columnist and TV pundit with several conviction for hate speech, announced he was standing in France’s presidential elections. Without an established party apparatus behind him, Zemmour’s campaign team have been networking the wealthy in search of financial donors. Mediapart has gained access to documents that reveal the identities of 35 of the largest donors, mostly found through fundraising dinners where guests include industrialists, bankers, high-flying lawyers and management consultants. Sébastien Bourdon, Ariane Lavrilleux and Marine Turchi report.
A Paris court has ordered maverick far-right polemicist Eric Zemmour to pay a fine of 10,000 euros after finding him guilty of hate speech during a television appearance when he described unaccompanied migrant children as "thieves", "rapists" and "murderers".
French interior minister Gérald Darmanin has announced legal moves to dissolve an ultra-right group called Zouaves Paris after its members were identified assaulting anti-racist demonstrators at a meeting of far-right presidential election candidate Éric Zemmour.
How is it that 'antifas' or anti-fascist activists are now described as “fascist” in certain quarters of the French media? Or that anti-racists have become the new racists? Lucie Delaporte looks at the way in which the French far-right have long subverted the meaning of words in a deliberate attempt to make extremist labels meaningless.
On Monday December 6th a small ultra-right group called 'Zouaves Paris' claimed responsibility for the violence committed against anti-racist activists at the previous day's political rally held by far-right presidential candidate Éric Zemmour. At the time, some people in charge of security at the event thanked those who carried out the attacks. On Tuesday the presidential candidate insisted he “condemned all the violence” while at the same time describing the activists from SOS Racisme as “provocateurs” and “handout seekers”. Sébastien Bourdon, Karl Laske and Marine Turchi report on the background to the ultra-right group involved in last Sunday's violence.
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