The mayor of Béziers, in Hérault, spoke on BFMTV of his links with the former presidential candidate and reaffirmed that he had changed his opinion on immigration. “I said bullshit,” he assured.
New distancing. Robert Ménard, the various right-wing mayor of Béziers, in Hérault, announced the end of his friendship with the former far-right presidential candidate and president of Reconquest Éric Zemmour Thursday on BFMTV.
“He was my friend and is no longer”
Asked on our set about his change of position regarding immigration, which he had severely criticized a few years earlier, the elected representative of Hérault argued that his work as mayor had made him change his position. “You learn that people are complicated,” he said.
Before adding: “I remember the shouting matches with Éric Zemmour who was my friend and who is no longer,” thus marking the end of his ties with the politician.
Robert Ménard had already assured last June, during the between-two rounds of the presidential election, that he “no longer wanted” to see Éric Zemmour reach the second round of the presidential election.
“Such an emotion” welcoming Ukrainian migrants
“I said bullshit” about immigration, said the mayor of Béziers again on BFMTV on Thursday, when he had made harsh remarks about migrants from Syria in 2015, refusing in particular to send children to school. Syrians, despite the law.
But, in addition to his job as mayor, the war in Ukraine helped him change his mind.
“The first Ukrainian refugees in Béziers arrived at my place by chance”, says Robert Ménard. He specifies: “A moment of such emotion that it forces you to rethink a certain number of things”.
Robert Ménard had once called on the candidate of the National Rally Marine Le Pen and that of Reconquest Éric Zemmour to join forces during the presidential election. He later said he “regrets” his “morally unwell” remarks about migrants.
