Eric Zemmour: Far-right journalist cast as Macron election rival

There were still 100 people queuing outside the auditorium when they closed the doors. Not bad for a man who hasn’t officially declared his candidacy yet.

Eric Zemmour is shaking up France’s presidential race before it’s even begun.

And his rally in the small southern town of Béziers made an unsettling image for France’s far-right leader, Marine Le Pen. Polls suggest he’s on track to challenge her for leadership of the nationalist hard-right in France.

The child of Jewish Algerian immigrants, Zemmour has long drawn attention for his controversial views – claiming, for example, that French Jews were protected by the state during World War Two. In fact, France’s wartime Vichy regime sent thousands of French Jews as well as Jewish refugees to the Nazi death camps.