Sarah Knafo is a French magistrate, member of the Court of Auditors, civil servant, and author. She served as a campaign director for Éric Zemmour’s latest presidential campaign, and is now on the French Reconquête party’s slate of candidates for the upcoming European elections.
Recently, you said that you will be the third candidate on Reconquête’s electoral list for the European elections. You were part of the party’s foundation and many have said you were the mastermind behind Zemmour’s presidential bid. Why did you decide to come to the fore?
Three years ago, with Éric Zemmour, we created a right-wing political party that became, in six months, the largest political party when it comes to membership and came in fourth place in the first round of the 2022 presidential election. I am extremely proud! We are more mobilized than ever, for we believe there’s still a long way to take our ideas to power in France. After all this time I organized, I structured, and I thought—but I remained in the background. Recently, I took the decision to cross that threshold and defend our ideas head on. Hence, I am the third candidate on Reconquête’s list for the European Parliament, with Marion Maréchal and our 79 other candidates—and I hope that on election day, if the French believe in us, I will become an MEP, as well.
Why should the French vote for you?
Because we are the only party in France that proposes a true liberation plan for Europeans. We want to liberate Europeans from immigration and islamization with a naval blockade, dissuading newcomers to undertake the perilous journey, stopping the arrivals, and enforcing expulsions. We want to liberate our nations from the Bruxellois yoke by destroying the European Commission’s power and restoring the primacy of national law over EU law. We want to liberate the European economy from regulatory tyranny and end budgetary waste, because Ursula von der Leyen does not use her money—it is our money! And finally, we want to liberate Europeans from woke propaganda, too often supported and financed by the European Union.
You are extremely engaged in the fight against wokism. What progress are you making?
Yes, the political class speaks about it but barely acts. It isn’t just a battle between the Right and the Left, it is internal undermining. Hence, I created an association named Parents Vigilants (Vigilant Parents) that invites parents to let us know when scandalous actions are going on in their children’s schools. 75,000 parents have joined us! It is colossal. That means that we have representatives just about everywhere in France. We put all our strength at their service when it comes to media, legal affairs, and developing local networks. Each week, we block propaganda initiatives, like a teacher who forced students to offer clothes to irregular migrants, Drag Queen shows that were attended by 4-year-old kids, and the presence of immigrationist NGOs in high schools. I intend to develop Vigilant Parents further, after the European elections.
Are you a bourgeois party? You have worked with Henri Guaino, the former special advisor to President Sarkozy, a politician known for his attachment to the working classes. Some would call him a left-wing Gaullist.
I am a daughter of the people, born in a French banlieue, Éric Zemmour equally so—he is the son of an ambulance driver. We came from humble backgrounds and triumphed due to our studies, due to books, due to culture—he in journalism, I as a civil servant. If we defend a form of elitism, we want an elite that serves the people. The problem with the French political class is that it equates caring the most about social issues with giving more handouts and subsidies—the left-wing approach. But it is a lie, one which we refuse to partake in. We say that purchasing power isn’t the money that the state gives us: it is the money that the state doesn’t take from us. Hence our program contains the most important reduction in taxes of the entire political class. We want to make sure that the French state stops the plundering of its most active citizens. Each year, we face around 45% in compulsory deductions! That means that after the 16th day of each month, the French are not working for themselves but to finance ludicrous public spending. The French do not want to live off subsidies; they want to live from their work. It is their legitimate right and with Reconquête, we will make sure it happens.
It has been said that the French don’t really like to work.
I hate the idea that the French are lazy, that they want to work only the bare minimum, that they prefer bureaucratic shenanigans instead of properly done work. That extremely condescending vision is also a left-wing one. We have a French politician, Sandrine Rousseau, who goes as far as defending ‘a right to sloth.’ Those sorts of people keep pushing us towards a sort of parasitism. They dream of transforming an entire people into a mass of strikers without motivation. Socialism is an extraordinary machine that hamstrings people, and France is its favorite victim. We want to destroy that machine.
Some say you belong to a sovereignist tradition, because you admire Philippe de Villiers and Marie-France Garaud. What do you say?
Yes, I am attached to France’s sovereignty and I want us to defend it tooth and nail. But we must remember that sovereignty is a means, not an end in itself. It must be put to work in order to reach an objective: today, that objective is the defense of our nations and our identities. I am a Frenchwoman; I can be tempted into a rivalry with the Germans because they are often stronger than us in defending their national interests inside the European Union, or because they have contributed to the decline of our nuclear energy. Still, I don’t want to live in a world where Berlin becomes a Turkish city, where Cologne ceases to be Cologne. We are Europeans, and even if we are not one and the same people, we are the same civilization. This brilliant civilization has given a lot to the world, and it is now being threatened. So, I feel that a European and even a sovereignist like myself should affirm that we have a common destiny that we must defend together. I want to continue to live in a world where Paris remains Paris, Brussels remains Brussels, Rome remains Rome, and Budapest remains Budapest.
Your competition, Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National and its president Jordan Bardella seem to be going strong. Is there any sense in splitting the nationalist vote?
A country where only one party can be part of the elections is called a dictatorship. Democracy divides the votes by nature, because it allows the people to choose. One must be aware that, in France, beginning 40 years ago, we have had a bunch of parties favorable to immigration and only one party historically against it: the Rassemblement National. That party had a monopoly in the fight against immigration, but it also has many faults that prevent it from getting the vote of many French patriots. This sheds light on why that party has lost all the presidential elections since its inception in 1972. That is why, in 2022, Éric Zemmour created a party to respond to the desires of millions of French citizens: Reconquête. It is a party that fights against immigration and islamization, but that also has a far more serious economic and European stance; it is a party that does not espouse demagogy; it is a party that is more conservative and, without any doubt, braver. When I hear Marine Le Pen affirm that Islam is compatible with our old country, when I hear her defend extra taxation while we are already the highest taxed country in the world, when I see her MPs defend surrogacy, I tell myself: “Fortunately, Éric Zemmour created Reconquête.”
Give us three words that define you politically.
Lucidity, truth, simplicity. Lucidity allows one to see the world as it and not as one would like it to be, like those who are naïve, cowards, or hypocrites do. Truth allows us to define with exactitude the most urgent problems France faces: and to do so honestly and dispassionately, counting on the intelligence of the peoples, without imposing a course indicated by opinion polls or ideological fixities. And simplicity, because my political reflection, my experience within the State, my passion for results, all show me that the best solutions to the crisis we endure are within our reach, under our eyes. They are simple, and they must simply be applied. Look around. What is lacking in the political world? Lucidity, truth, and simplicity. We are going to eliminate that shortage.
