Éric Zemmour announces French presidential bid with pledge to cut immigration
The Reconquete! leader confirmed his candidacy for France's 2027 presidential election, proposing expulsions that would include legal foreign residents unemployed for more than six months.
By Hassan Ellis ·
French far-right politician Éric Zemmour formally entered the 2027 presidential contest on Tuesday, setting out an immigration agenda that includes expelling foreigners who have been unemployed for more than six months. Under his proposal, legal residency would not protect those affected from removal. His announcement confirms another presidential bid after he placed fourth in the 2022 election.
Zemmour, who leads the far-right Reconquete! party, whose name translates as Regain!, announced his decision on television. He presented his candidacy as an effort to "preserve a French France so that our future is French". The former pundit is known for his prominent opposition to Islam and immigration.
As part of that agenda, Zemmour said he wanted France to have "two million fewer immigrants by the end of the five-year term". He outlined expulsions as a means of reaching that goal, identifying both foreign offenders serving prison sentences and foreigners experiencing extended unemployment as groups he would seek to remove.
The unemployment proposal would apply to foreign nationals who had been without work for longer than six months, including those legally residing in France. Zemmour placed that measure alongside the removal of imprisoned foreign offenders in describing how he intended to reduce the immigrant population during a presidential term.
His declaration comes as Marine Le Pen, a more prominent figure on the far right, looks toward what she sees as her strongest opportunity to win the presidency. President Emmanuel Macron is due to leave office next year. In July, a court shortened the ban on holding public office imposed on Le Pen following a graft conviction.
Le Pen, a veteran politician from the anti-immigration National Rally party, finished second to Macron in each of the previous two presidential elections. Projections have widely placed her ahead of other candidates in the first round of the upcoming vote.
Zemmour, 68, worked as a journalist before entering politics five years ago. He had signalled in mid-September that he intended to contest the presidency, although his entourage immediately said those remarks did not constitute an official announcement.
In 2020, Zemmour received a criminal conviction over comments about Muslim women and men dressed in traditional religious clothing. In those remarks, he described them as part of an invasion and colonisation.
