The Observer view on the far-right’s power beyond the French presidential elections | Observer editorial

Eric Zemmour and others who stir up hatred are likely to fail electorally but have huge unchallenged cultural power

Eric Zemmour is unlikely to be the next president of France. In the first place, he is not yet officially a candidate. Second, his repellent brand of racist, far-right codswallop already has a well-established mouthpiece: Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally (formerly the National Front).

That said, Zemmour is doing well in opinion polls and is significantly influencing the election agenda. Known as a TV pundit and polemicist, his latest bestseller, France Has Not Had Its Final Word, is a pseudo-intellectual requiem for the death of France as we know it", by which he means white, Catholic France. In short, Zemmour claims Muslims are out to capture the state.

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