PARIS — Anti-immigration firebrand Eric Zemmour let slip Thursday that he plans to run in next year’s presidential election, seemingly ending speculation that he might step aside to make way for his partner, MEP Sarah Knafo. The leader of the far-right party Reconquest — who advocated in the past for the mass deportation of immigrants, state spending cuts and banning Muslim headscarves in public spaces — told BFMTV: “I am a candidate for the presidency of the Republic,” before adding, “you know what I mean, I will be a candidate.” Zemmour’s popularity in France peaked in the early days of his first campaign for the presidency in 2022, as his incendiary anti-immigrant remarks and promotion of the great replacement conspiracy theory — which asserts that immigrants are being let into Western countries like France to deliberately dilute the white population— earned him worldwide notoriety. He even seemed to pose a threat to Marine Le Pen, the longtime face of the French far right.
But his campaign eventually lost momentum, only scoring 7% of the vote in the first round of voting. Zemmour’s partner, whose political star has been rising despite an unsuccessful bid for Paris mayor in March, has fueled speculation that she may be considering a presidential run of her own. Earlier this month, Knafo published a book accusing the state of mismanaging public finances, and it quickly became a bestseller.
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