PARIS: Eric Zemmour, the far-right presidential candidate, kicked off his first official campaign rally here on Sunday (5th of Dec 2021).
Police was on high alert over the risk of clashes with protesters as thousands of supporters gathered at a stadium outside Paris.
Zemmour, a 63-year-old author and television pundit, announced Tuesday that he would run in next April’s election, joining the field of challengers seeking to unseat centrist President Emmanuel Macron.
Waving French flags and chanting “Zezu President!” or singing the Marseillaise national anthem, fans waited amid flyers proclaiming an anti-immigrant candidacy “so that France remains French.”
The rally is also a chance for Zemmour to regain momentum after stumbling in opinion polls following his dramatic entrance into French politics in September.
“We’re hoping that by announcing his candidacy and with this meeting that it will relaunch him a bit,” said Maxence Mike, 22, student from the Paris suburb of Montargis and member of the “Generation Z” association.
“There’s a malaise in France, a crisis of civilisations and security problems, and for now he’s the only one with the courage to pose these problems clearly,” said Jacques Ohana, a 65-year-old Paris surgeon, who noted that like Zemmour he had north African origins.
Around 19,000 people have signed up for the event, according to Zemmour’s campaign, leading him to swap a concert hall for a larger capacity exhibition space in the Villepinte suburb northeast of the capital.
Police are on alert for far-left activists and anarchists who disrupted Zemmour’s trip last weekend to the southern of port city of Marseille, which ended with the candidate showing the middle finger to a woman who was protesting.
Riot police massed outside the arena and searched people’s bags as they arrived.
In Paris, a few hundred people marched to protest a candidacy denounced as racist and divisive.
“It’s important to show that we won’t let fascism gain ground,” Simon Duteil, a spokesperson for the Solidaires union, told the Media.
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