In the exhibition center, several thousand activists chant "We are at home", waving red white blue flags.
According to the organizers, they were 13,000 activists to have attended the first meeting of Eric Zemmour this Sunday, December 5 in Villepinte (Seine-Saint-Denis).
At the entrance to the meeting, activists from the Action Française monarchist movement distribute their newspapers.
"We meet on certain themes, including immigration, sovereignty," lists Brocard, a 24-year-old social worker.
Some 900 young people from the militant movement "Generation Z" are present, according to its president Stanislas Rigault who defended in the gallery a generation which "refuses the great replacement", this conspiracy theory claimed by Eric Zemmour according to which the European population is replaced by immigrants non-Europeans.
Among the activists who came to this first meeting, many first-time voters, who see in Zemmour "a capacity to bring together young people", notes Antoine, 23 years old.
After hesitating with Marine Le Pen, he made his decision: in April, he will vote Zemmour.
Above all, he hopes that Zemmour would allow him to "find the values instilled by his grandparents".
The same goes for Ilan, 19.
“When I hear a lot of adults say it was better before, you have to listen to them.
Even if it is not a world that I lived, I have testimonies which make me want to live what my large acres and great-grandparents went through ”.
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During his speech, the far-right polemicist now a candidate unveiled the name of his party: Reconquest.
“The reconquest is now launched.
Reclaiming our economy, reclaiming our security, reclaiming our identity, reclaiming our sovereignty, reclaiming our country ”, argued the candidate.
He also designated his enemies: "journalists", "jihadists", "feminists".
At midday, tensions erupted between opponents of the arrival of Eric Zemmour and the police, in front of the RER station.
Forty-six people, who were in an area closed to demonstrations, were arrested, said the prefecture.
A dozen SOS Racisme activists then entered the exhibition center.
Hidden from the public, they unveiled clothes to say "no to racism" at the start of Eric Zemmour's speech.
In the video broadcast by the association, we see them immediately receiving blows and being targeted by chairs.
Several chases take place at the back of the room to exfiltrate them, in great confusion.
