French far-right TV personality Eric Zemmour is holding his first campaign rally on Sunday near Paris, a few days after he formally declared his candidacy for April’s presidential election.
The 63-year-old with multiple hate-speech convictions has unveiled his campaign’s slogan: “Impossible is not French,” a quote attributed to Napoleon.
The rally, which was initially to take place in a Paris concert hall, has been moved to a bigger exhibition centre in a northern suburb of the capital.
The move was prompted by security reasons as a protest against Zemmour took place on Sunday in the French capital.
The march was organised by over 50 organisations including far-left political parties, unions and anti-racist groups. Police had feared possible clashes with Zemmour’s far-right supporters.
In the popular Paris neighbourhood of Barbes, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets on Sunday, marching behind a banner reading “Paris will silence the far-right.”
Zemmour has gained strength on France’s political scene in recent months, starting to siphon off supporters from far-right National Party leader Marine Le Pen, who has long said she would run for the French presidency next year.
Zemmour’s first rally comes one day after France’s main right-wing party “Les Républicains” picked Valérie Pécresse, the head of the Paris region and a former minister from 2007 to 2012, as its presidential candidate.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who defeated Le Pen in the 2017 presidential runoff, is expected to seek a second term but he has yet to declare his candidacy.
The far-left leader of the Rebel France party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who is seeking the presidency for the third time, also staged a rally on Sunday, gathering several thousand supporters in Paris.
Other presidential candidates on the left include Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo for the Socialist party and Green MEP Yannick Jadot.
