Éric Zemmour

A political journalist at Le Figaro from 1996 to 2021 and a television commentator, he founded the party Reconquête in December 2021 and is its president. He finished fourth in the 2022 presidential election. He is named in a race as a possible candidate in the 2027 French presidential election.

Career

Zemmour worked as a reporter at Le Quotidien de Paris from 1986 to 1996, then as a political journalist at Le Figaro until 2021. He was a television and radio commentator, including on France 2, RTL, Paris Première and, from 2019 to 2021, CNews. He announced his candidacy for the presidency on 30 November 2021 and founded Reconquête on 5 December 2021. In the 2022 presidential election he took 7.07% of the first-round vote, finishing fourth, and endorsed Marine Le Pen for the second round.

Positions

Zemmour describes himself as a Gaullo-Bonapartist. Wikipedia reports that he is widely described as far-right, while some commentators call him a radical conservative. He campaigns for nationalism, national sovereignty and sharply reduced immigration.

Controversies

Zemmour has been convicted several times of speech offences and acquitted in other cases, according to Wikipedia. On 2 December 2025 the Cour de cassation rejected his appeals in two cases, making the sentences final: one for complicity in public insult and provocation to hatred over remarks on unaccompanied minors on CNews in 2020 (100 day-fines of 100 euros), and one for defamation of the lawyer Patrick Klugman over remarks on France 2 in April 2022 (1,000 euros), as reported by Le Club des juristes.

Summarised automatically from the linked sources. Wikipedia · Le Club des juristes

Photo: Anh De France, CC0, Wikimedia Commons (cropped)