Marseille finger-flipping points to trouble for
Eric Zemmour
Flipping the bird is the latest mishap for the French
far-right presidential hopeful.
BY CLEA
CAULCUTT
November
28, 2021 5:31 pm
https://www.politico.eu/article/marseille-farce-puts-zemmours-campaign-on-the-skids/
MARSEILLE —
The presidential campaign of far-right French TV pundit Eric Zemmour looks like
it’s becoming unhinged even before it officially starts.
During a
two-day stop in Marseille, Zemmour was battling bad news on several fronts.
First,
there were the allegations in a glossy magazine that his 28-year-old de facto
campaign director was pregnant with his child. Zemmour, 63, is married and has
placed defending traditional family values high on his political platform.
Then there
were the groups of leftist protesters hounding him through the backstreets of
the Mediterranean port city.
But above
all, there was the finger.
On
Saturday, the best-selling writer was pictured making an offensive one-fingered
gesture from his car window to an unknown woman as he shouted: “Very deeply.” According
to the photographer from the AFP news agency who took the picture, Zemmour was
responding to a similar bird-flipping gesture from the woman.
A member of
his team later tried to explain that Zemmour had responded “instinctively” to
an insult.
The
populist pundit has upset pre-campaigning ahead of France’s presidential
election next April, rising in the polls to challenge longtime far-right leader
Marine Le Pen of the National Rally, with promises of hardline anti-immigration
and anti-Islam policies.
But a
series of upsets in recent days has raised questions about whether the
political novice is robust enough to survive the challenges of the campaign
trail.
Unwelcome
in Marseille
The
finger-flipping episode happened at the end of a fraught visit to Marseille,
the last stop in Zemmour’s book promotion tour before he officially launches
his campaign next week.
He was
originally expected to meet with locals and do some glad-handing at a market.
But the visit quickly turned into a cat-and-mouse game with far-left
protesters, intent on showing he was not welcome.
On Friday,
a leisurely stroll with a supporter in a historic Marseille neighborhood turned
into a 15-minute dash as protesters and angry locals shouted “racist” and “go
home.”
The tone of
the visit did not improve when Zemmour told the press that Marseille, France’s
second-largest city and renowned for its proud sense of local identity, was “a
counter-example” when it came to immigration.
“Marseille
is the future of France in 20 years if we don’t do anything,” Zemmour
predicted. “All of France will be like Marseille if we carry on welcoming
400,000 immigrants per year.”
On Saturday
his team also canceled a visit to a fish market in the Marseille port, citing
bad weather.
A difficult
couple of days
The picture
of him giving the finger to a member of the public sparked a wave of
disapproval among political opponents and even potential allies.
Lawmaker
Bruno Questel, from President Emmanuel Macron’s La République En Marche party,
tweeted that the gesture was “undignified” and called for an end to Zemmour’s
“bad joke” campaign.
MEP Gilbert
Collard from Le Pen’s National Rally told BFMTV “the middle-finger gesture was
extremely grave.”
Many of
Zemmour’s supporters tried to shrug off the incident, but it comes as missteps
and mishaps are giving backers cold feet.
Last week,
a key supporter withdrew his backing of Zemmour after it was revealed that his
€300,000 loan might fall foul of campaign funding rules. Former minister
Philippe de Villiers, an ally in the conservative camp, also announced he would
be skipping Zemmour’s first campaign rally in Paris next Sunday. The latest
polls show a sharp dip in support in recent weeks.
But while
his campaign is currently facing difficulties, it would be a mistake to write
him off.
Zemmour
promised an end to politics as usual and to bring authenticity to a political
world he says is rife with hypocrisy and complacency. The trials and
tribulations of other populist figures, such as U.S. President Donald Trump,
also show how those embracing an anti-establishment line can survive disasters
that would kill the careers of mainstream politicians.
Or it may
be that what started as a high-minded campaign to restore Gallic grandeur will
end as a French farce.
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