Eric Zemmour
Eric Zemmour is a French writer and TV commentator who was sacked for implying Muslims ought to be deported and predicting a 'civil war' would stem from conflicts connected to the Muslim population of France.[1]
Activities
Zemmour was previously convicted of inciting racial hatred in 2011 after claiming that most drug dealers are 'blacks and Arabs'.[1]
He is author of a book called The French Suicide, which reportedly 'argues that France's identity is being destroyed by factors including immigration, homosexuality and feminism'. It has sold over 250,000 copies.[1]
Views
In October 2014, Zemmour was interviewed by an Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, and though the transcript was subsequently deleted it had already been copied and translated into French.[1]
In the interview Zemmour claimed that Muslims 'live among themselves' in suburbs from which French people have been forced to leave. When asked whether he was proposing the deportation of the 5 million French Muslims he reportedly replied 'I know it's unrealistic, but history is often surprising. Who would have thought in 1940 that a million pieds-noirs [Europeans living in North Africa], twenty years later, would have left Algeria to return to France? Or that after the war five or six million Germans would leave Central-Eastern Europe where they had lived for centuries?'[1]
Reactions
When former French education minister Jean-Luc Mélenchon drew attention to Zemmour's comments in December 2014, many leading French politicians condemned his arguments.
Zemmour was sacked from his 11-year job on an iTELE chat show. A Twitter campaign with the hashtag #ZemmourDeporteMoi (Zemmour would deport me) was also sparked.
But Marine Le Pen of the far-right Front National defended Zemmour and said his sacking was 'loathsome censorship'.[1]
Affiliations
Contact
- Twitter: twitter.com/zemmourinfos
