French Far-right Pundit Zemmour Launches Presidential Bid

Paris, Dec 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Dec, 2021 ) :French far-right pundit Eric Zemmour announced on Tuesday that he will run for president in next year's election, staking his claim in a video peppered with anti-immigrant rhetoric and doom-laden warnings about the future.

Zemmour, a 63-year-old writer and tv commentator, is the most stridently anti-Islam and anti-migrant of the challengers seeking to unseat President Emmanuel Macron in the April 2022 vote.

His entry into the race -- anticipated for weeks -- will see him try to outflank far-right leader Marine Le Pen with a more radical programme that includes banning foreign-sounding first Names.

"It is no longer the time to reform France, but to save it," he said. "That's why I have decided to stand.

" Referring repeatedly to his view that white French people are being replaced by foreigners, he said he had joined the race "so that our daughters don't have to wear headscarves and our sons don't have to be submissive".

Zemmour soared in opinion polls in September and October while teasing his presidential ambitions, but has since lost momentum.

A photograph of the Paris-born pundit giving a middle finger with the comment "Real deep!" to a protester during a trip to Marseille at the weekend was seen as his latest misstep and he is yet to draw any political heavyweights to his side.

A new poll on Tuesday showed him in third or fourth position with 13 percent in the first round of the election, down three or four points in a week, behind Le Pen and Macron.