Too popular or too corrosive?
This Wednesday, Eric Zemmour changed the location of his first meeting as a candidate for the presidency of the French Republic, citing too much attendance, and while elected Parisians had denounced his coming.
" What good news !
There are so many of you who want to attend the meeting on Sunday, December 5 that we are moving it from the Zénith in Paris to the Parc des Expositions in Villepinte, ”said the far-right candidate, in a message posted on Twitter.
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The entourage of Eric Zemmour recognized with the Parisian that this last minute change required major reconfigurations: “There are no seats, stage or bridges for the lights.
It's a hall.
Everything must be arranged.
This is the challenge of the day, ”a member of his campaign team told us, specifying that the 19,000 people already registered will in fact have a place in this new place.
The Exhibition Center can accommodate a total of up to 30,000 people standing with around 20,000 seats, or about six times the capacity of the room initially rented by the supporters of Eric Zemmour.
On Sunday, the doors will open at 1 p.m., and the public meeting will start at 3 p.m.
Risks of overflows
The day before this announcement, Tuesday November 30, the council of the XIXth arrondissement - where the Zenith of Paris is located, the place initially chosen by the candidate - had denounced the arrival of the former polemicist twice condemned for "provocation to racial hatred "And" provocation to religious hatred ".
The elected representatives of the majority have indeed voted a wish recalling the attachment of the territory to "human and republican values, against the ideas conveyed by Eric Zemmour".
“I am for the confrontation of ideas.
Our role is not to prohibit, but this meeting will put the whole district under tension, ”declared François Dagnaud, PS mayor of the XIX arrondissement.
The 19th century council had also alerted the State services to "the risks of disturbing public order posed by the organization of this meeting" at the Zenith in Paris.
Elected officials feared conflicts between sympathizers and residents of this neighborhood "where crack users and migrants on the street are installed," said Hadrien Bortot, deputy mayor, communist.
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Calls to demonstrate had also been launched by the CGT, Solidaires and anti-fascist activists, on the sidelines of this first official meeting between Éric Zemmour and his supporters. "We must be thousands to converge on the Zenith, to prevent Zemmour from holding his meeting, to disrupt the holding of this event (...)", declared Action Antifasciste Paris Banlieue, a movement to fight against the far right.
Eric Zemmour's previous trip, then as an essayist, had already triggered strong hostility against him.
On November 27, he went to Marseille, avoiding any contact with the population.
A meeting with the French which ended in an exchange of fingers of honor with an anti-fascist activist.
"Thank you for your enthusiasm," then declared the former polemicist, in an email to his supporters.
In addition, Saturday November 27, some 3000 demonstrators, according to the prefecture of police of Paris, participated in the capital in a parade "against the extreme right and racism" and "against the ideology" of Eric Zemmour.
Very supervised by the police, the parade was punctuated by sporadic incidents after his departure.