Nothing has moved, but everything has changed in the sky of Versailles. On March 31, the Catholic association Les Awakeners is organizing an “exceptional” evening at the convention center to welcome Eric Zemmour, who has come to present his latest book, I didn’t say my last word (Rubempré, 2023). In October 2021, this offshoot of the Manif pour tous received the not-yet-candidate-but-almost polemicist in the same place, a few months before the presidential election. A rising rock star. A year and a half later, well-groomed activists are still selling the French Action newspaper in front of the room, located opposite the gates of the Palace of Versailles. But, inside, floats a perfume of veterans and nostalgia. “I was at the Trocadero!” launches an octogenarian to his neighbor, who immediately replies “Me, too!”, in reference to the large Parisian outdoor meeting of the ex-candidate.
The comparison with the past is painful. “It was fire, it was crazy”, remembers with emotion Stanislas Rigault. On this Friday evening, the president of Generation Z is the only member of the executive board of Reconquest! to accompany his boss. The 23-year-old is a little upset: he has just come out of a television program where, when asked about the war in Ukraine, he did not, by his own admission, shine. Marion Maréchal is not there, but the vice-president of the movement has a good excuse: she is having her daughter baptized in Italy. And the others ? No trace of former LR Guillaume Peltier, MEP Nicolas Bay or Senator Stéphane Ravier. While it was necessary, in 2021, to open a 300-seat room on the ground floor to accommodate all of Eric Zemmour’s supporters, the 1,000-seat auditorium is not full this time. On the balcony, solitude of empty seats. Cost of the operation, despite the entrance ticket at 20 euros: 5,000 euros deficit in the coffers of the association, which has launched an appeal for donations to cover its costs. The people of Versailles had no choice: the Montansier theater, smaller and more economical, refused to open its 600 seats to the former far-right candidate. Zemmour fills the rooms less, but he still splits as much.
On stage, the expensive guest unfolds his argument, returns to the main themes of his book. His score lower than expected (“the political system has made what it wanted”), Marine Le Pen whom he still considers unable to win (“the RN is now inaugurating mosques”), the media guilty of everything ( “The firepower is terrible!”), and his errors which are not (“I sinned for the sake of rationality”). Western suburbs oblige – in Versailles, Eric Zemmour totaled 18% of the votes, more than double his national score -, the president of Reconquest! also evokes LGBT “propaganda”, against which he intends to fight through his network of “vigilant parents”, a platform launched in December to bring up hypothetical abuses within National Education.
Who still cares about Eric Zemmour’s opinion?
His partner and adviser Sarah Knafo organized the event. The young woman is nevertheless absent: near the end of her pregnancy, she has been avoiding the press and photographers for several months. This does not prevent him from remaining riveted to his phone, able to send dozens of messages on Telegram to a journalist to complain about a bad line in a paper. It was she who asked the Awakeners for this evening, encouraging the association to choose a large room. “Sarah asked me to film Eric’s arrival, are you going? I have a shitty laptop”, slips a panicked activist, a few seconds before the arrival. Images of jubilation must continue to saturate social networks: what does it matter that no one is shouting “Zemmour president!” in the aisles. Otherwise, how to continue?
Since the start of the school year in September, the question of the survival of the political movement has animated the executives of Reconquête!. Almost everyone depends on it. Marion Maréchal, the former deputy Guillaume Peltier today without a mandate, Sarah Knafo, Eric Zemmour, Stanislas Rigault live directly from the emoluments of the company, sorry, from the political party. Difficult to exist, without a representative in the National Assembly and therefore without speaking time. All the more so when none of the major themes since the start of the school year – war in Ukraine, purchasing power and pension reform – serves the radical formation, which has placed the civilizational fight against the “great replacement” at the top of its list. of priorities. Stuck between a Marine Le Pen in the opposition who says nothing but seems to be reaping the fruits of social anger and an Emmanuel Macron embodying order or inflexibility, it depends who still cares about the opinion of ‘Eric Zemmour? The postponement of the immigration reform does not suit him either.
In order not to disappear, the party deploys a strategy of occupation of the ground, theorized by Philippe Vardon, former figurehead of the Identitaires, today “delegate to the animation”, employee, him also, by the movement. The Niçois is now one of those who count within Reconquête!, always present on the days of the executive office, although he is not part of it. In a few months, the communicator has won the trust of Sarah Knafo, fond of his advice, and also cultivates his old friendship with Marion Maréchal. No one knows, but for a few months Vardon has been renting an apartment in the same building as Jean-Marie Le Pen’s granddaughter. Under his impetus, the party multiplied agit-prop actions on the ground, anti-immigrant demonstrations in Brittany or Toulon, defense of a statue of the Virgin in Charente-Maritime, petitions against teachers guilty of organizing sex education class…
“We must keep the device in permanent campaign”, assures the interested party to L’Express. Thus reproducing methods acquired during the creation of Génération identitaire, a militant group of far-right anti-Islam and anti-immigration activists of which he was the iconic leader. Half political formation, half militant community, Reconquest! presents under its influence an atypical profile in the French landscape. For its leaders, it’s the only way to retain the 100,000 up-to-date members, a source of pride as much as life insurance. On April 11, Eric Zemmour’s email address sent a list of job offers and profiles of unemployed “patriots” to the entire file of movement sympathizers. “As you know, Reconquête! is not a party like the others. It’s a real community that knows what fraternity between French people means,” proclaims the email. Which does not specify whether a French first name is required to apply.
Objective: to disconnect Zemmour from the Europeans
But Philippe Vardon is far from unanimous within the far-right formation. Far from the microphones, several executives, activists and campaign employees told L’Express of their fatigue and their embarrassment in the face of the authoritarian attitude of the new strategist, to the point of taking a step back with the training. The regional adviser Paca worries, able to throw to a manager “Do you want me to show you what it is when I’m upset?”, or exasperates, as when he uses, according to three different witnesses, the expression “bougnoules ” to designate the migrants of the Ocean Viking or a meal delivery man. “This word is not part of my vocabulary”, refutes with L’Express the person concerned, citing internal malice.
What does Eric Zemmour think? The party president seems to be floating overhead. Several frames of Reconquest! covertly evoke an impossible outcome, and a stuck formation, both dependent on the tutelary figure of its president for its future and condemned to play the extras because of its excesses and its lack of political sense. All noted that despite an excellent start – nearly 40,000 copies in two weeks according to Edistat – his new book sold three times less than the previous one.
Will Eric Zemmour be head of the list in the European elections of 2024? Within the executive office, several executives are busy trying to discourage him from going there without seeming to push him out. The relatives of Marion Maréchal have found the string: to slip that the competition, where the sexagenarian would oppose the not yet thirty-year-old Jordan Bardella, would not be of his level. “The match with Bardella does not scare me”, emphasizes on the contrary to L’Express Marion Maréchal. The former deputy of Vaucluse knows it: if her movement is less than 5% during this electoral meeting, the adventure could well end there.
If, officially, everyone does not care about Eric Zemmour within the National Rally, in private, Marine Le Pen keeps a close eye on the former journalist. In his entourage, every opportunity is good to fire on the Reconquête! ambulance. “The mass is said, it is cooked”, swears the faithful Jean-Lin Lacapelle. The MEP goes so far as to dent Jean-Marie Le Pen’s granddaughter: “If Marion Maréchal is the head of the list, they can do even less than 3 or 4%. She has no future.” At Versailles, Eric Zemmour is reassured by noting that his public is present during the two hours of dedications. “I assure you of all my prayers”, slips an admirer to the star of the evening. “I really need it, thank you!” replies Eric Zemmour with a smile. We don’t know if he was ironic.
