Author, polemicist and now one of the frontrunners in France’s presidential elections, Éric Zemmour, has declared that it is his duty to rescue France and its people from the ‘Great Replacement,’ warning voters that the country will look like Lebanon in five to ten years if he’s not victorious in the race for the Élysée Palace.
While speaking with French journalist Anne-Claire Coudray on TF1’s Sunday evening programme Partie de Campaign, the right-wing firebrand, and leader of the newly formed Reconquête party said: “I could have remained a journalist and a writer, but I felt that my duty was to save France from the Great Replacement,” adding that because he’s “not a traditional politician” his promises will be kept.
In a separate interview with Sud Radio—which also aired on Sunday, despite having been recorded a few days earlier—the presidential hopeful, who according to the latest polls now sits in third place, provided the host with a bit of insight as to why he’s bringing previously taboo issues like ‘the Great Replacement’ to the forefront of public awareness.
“I sound the alarm before the others because I have a more acute awareness of the problems,” he said, adding: “I sincerely believe that, if I am not elected, in five or ten years France will be a Lebanon in general.”
Although half of the French population believe in ‘the Great Replacement’ theory, Zemmour’s popularization of the term—and the phenomenon it describes—has compelled other presidential hopefuls from the French Right to adopt similar phraseology, something that likely wouldn’t have occurred if he had stayed out of the contest.
Apart from MP Éric Ciotti, a former candidate from the Les Republicains who endorsed ‘the Great Replacement’ theory—but who lost in the final round of the party’s primary election in December—Valérie Pécresse, the candidate who defeated him in that primary run-off, has also invoked the phrase.
In a 75-minute speech, delivered in front of some 7,000 people over the weekend in Paris, Pécresse asked her supporters: “In ten years… will we be a sovereign nation, a U.S. satellite, or a Chinese trading post? Will we be unified or divided?”
“Nothing is written, whether it’s loss of economic status or the Great Replacement,” she told her supporters.
“If we have to build walls as some states do, I would support [it],” Pécresse continued. “I want us to fight together against immigration which leads to areas [that aren’t French]. Faced with the nation which is cracking in silence, I demand assimilation, because I want to make French people of heart and not of paper.”
Commenting on Pécresse’s use of the phrase during a CNEWS segment which aired earlier this week, Paris-based lawyer Pierre Gentillet argued that ‘the Great Replacement’ theory is no longer simply a theory—but an easily perceived reality.
“The goal is to replace the French civilization with other civilizations,” Gentille began. “It describes a phenomenon that is demographic [in nature], but not only that. And that is where it becomes interesting. It also has religious and ethnic components.”
“Tomorrow the debate will not be whether or not there is a great replacement but whether it is good or bad,” he argued.
