Högerextrem utmanare går om Le Pen i Frankrike

Éric Justin Léon Zemmour (French pronunciation: ​[eʁik zemuʁ]; born 31 August 1958) is a French political journalist, essayist, writer and media personality. A household name in his homeland, he was a regular guest on Face à l'Info, an audience record-breaking daily television show on CNews, from 2019 to 2021. Most mainstream news organisations characterise Zemmour's positions as far-right, while he politically self-identifies between Gaullism and Bonapartism.Born in Montreuil to a Berber Jewish family from Algeria, Zemmour studied at Sciences Po. He worked as a reporter for Le Quotidien de Paris from 1986 to 1996, when he joined Le Figaro until he was moved in 2010 to Le Figaro Magazine, before being reassigned to Le Figaro in 2013, where he worked until 2021. He continued after 2013 to write for Le Figaro Magazine as a columnist as well. Zemmour appeared as a television personality on shows such as On n'est pas couché on France 2 (2006–2011) and Ça se dispute on I-Télé (2003–2014). He also appeared on Zemmour et Naulleau from 2011 to 2021, a weekly evening talk show hosted by Anaïs Bouton on Paris Première, together with literary critic Éric Naulleau. Zemmour worked in parallel for RTL from 2010 until 2019, first hosting the daily radio show Z comme Zemmour, prior to joining Yves Calvi's morning news show as an analyst. His book The French Suicide (Le Suicide français) sold more than 500,000 copies in 2014 and won the 2015 Prix Combourg-Chateaubriand. In 2011 Zemmour was awarded the Prix Richelieu for his achievements in journalism. In 2021, a New York Times article described Zemmour as someone who "has portrayed himself as a truth-teller in a news media dominated by politically correct, left-leaning journalists. He has railed against the immigration of Muslim Africans, invoking the supposed existential threat of a 'great replacement'—a loaded term that even Ms. Le Pen has avoided—that will overwhelm France's more established white and Christian population". He has extensively discussed the Clash of Civilisations thesis, as well as advocated for vast reforms to France's political system. Zemmour has been considered in news media as a possible right-wing anti-establishment candidate in the 2022 presidential election. Although he remains publicly undecided about a run for office, early polling has suggested he could qualify for the second round, a rise which The Guardian has qualified as "meteoric".Frequently sued by political opponents for making controversial statements, Zemmour was fined for provocation to racial discrimination in 2011 and for provocation to hate against Muslims in 2018, albeit the latter conviction is pending review before the European Court of Human Rights. He was acquitted six times of similar charges, in 2008, 2014 (twice), 2016, 2017 and 2019. Convictions in 2015 and 2020 were overturned on appeal.