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For whoever is joined to all the living has hope, for concerning a live dog he is better than a dead lion. Kohelet 9:4 |
Éric Zemmour (born August 31, 1958) is a French conservative political journalist and writer. He has been a columnist for the daily newsparer Le Figaro and a panelist on France 2 talk-show On n'est pas couché and on I-Télé current affairs show Ça se dispute. He has received fame as well as controversy for his very conservative views about national sovereignty and patriarchy and for his criticism towards immigration, European integration and egalitarian activism.
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Éric Zemmour was born in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, France to Roger and Lucette Zemmour, Jews who left their native Algeria during the country's struggle for independence. Zemmour attended École Yabn, a well-regarded Jewish high school in Paris, which reportedly left a lasting impact on his self-image.
After graduating from the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris, Zemmour made two unsuccessful attempts to gain admission to the École nationale d'administration. He took a job instead with Le Quotidien de Paris, under the leadership of its founder Philippe Tesson. His next position was as editorialist at Info-Matin, a newly-founded French daily. He was also a contributor to Globe Hebdo, a weekly news-magazine, before eventually joining Le Figaro as a political columnist in 1996.
Zemmour has written biographies of Jacques Chirac (L'homme qui ne s'aimait pas or "The man who did not like himself") and Édouard Balladur (Balladur, immobile à grands pas or "Balladur, standstill with big steps") as well as numerous political essays. In 2006, he published the best-selling Le premier sexe, an essay on what he considers the feminization of society. During the same year, he also co-wrote the award-winning film Dans la peau de Jacques Chirac.
Beginning in September 2006, Zemmour began appearing on the Saturday evening France 2 show On n'est pas couché, hosted by Laurent Ruquier. In addition, he is a weekly panelist on Ça se dispute, a current affairs show appearing on I-Télé.
In 2006, Zemmour was a member of the admissions committee of the École nationale d'administration, the same panel which had twice rejected him for admission.
In Le Premier sexe, Zemmour accuses modern feminists of wanting to "castrate" men, and charges their movement with bringing negative consequences upon society (including the loss of the notion of authority). Declaring that the role of fathers is very different from that of mothers, he has alienated, besides feminists, men disputing his vision (including actor Francis Huster). Zemmour accuses these opponents of being demagogues obsessed with political correctness and ignoring the history of French society and misunderstanding of Sigmund Freud's works. Others, including author Franz-Olivier Giesbert, have lauded his views. He supports the patriarchy view.
Zemmour regularly takes positions that he describes as "anti-human rightsism", placing him in opposition to many politicians (including Bernard Kouchner), intellectuals (including Bernard-Henri Lévy), and organizations advocating humanitarian intervention, which Zemmour considers to be a form of neo-colonialism. On the 12th of September 2009 during the TV show On n'est pas couché, Zemmour had an argument with Samuel Benchetrit about re-considering the pros and the cons of death penalty by stating that, with its abolition in France, it has created a disproportion in the hierarchy of major crimes. While presenting his arguments, Zemmour angered Samuel Benchetrit who apparently was against this form of punishment.
Zemmour considers himself Gaullist and Bonapartist, and places himself in a profoundly anti-liberal (economically and socially) portion of the French right. He also considers himself to be a reactionary, in that he believes his views to be a reaction to a society that dismantles the social order, especially family and tradition, in the pursuit of a false goal: liberating the individual, who only finds himself isolated and reduced to the status of consumer. He reserves subversiveness for the right-wing, arguing that the progressives now dominant in French culture and media can no longer claim to be critics of the established order since they have become the established order.
Zemmour's anti-liberalism also causes him to oppose European federalism. He considers Europe to be profoundly liberal and out of step with the French social order. He also believes that within a European community, the political right and left are forced to advocate "the same economic policy, social liberalism or liberal socialism", since, in the words of Philippe Séguin, "right and left are outlets of the same wholesaler, Europe."
Zemmour is an advocate of traditional French assimilationism, and is staunchly opposed to "mass" immigration brought on by family reunification and to the current process of integrating immigrants which he considers too lenient towards them. He has frequently declared that he is in favour of assimilation. He is also in favour of the Thierry Mariani amendment, which would require people wishing to immigrate to France on the basis of family reunification to prove their relationship via DNA testing. He is frequently criticized for his pronouncements on immigration and his attacks on certain organizations (including SOS Racisme).
Eric Zemmour is married to Mylène Chichportich who is a jurist and they have two sons Hugo and Thilbault, and a daughter Clarisse.
Éric Zemmour
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