Presidential election completely without Le Pen and Zemmour?

France's rights could fail in advance

Created: 02/20/2022, 18:32

By: Florian Naumann

Marine Le Pen during an election campaign in early February.

© Michel Euler/dpa

Many eyes are on the right-wingers Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour in the French election campaign - but both could fall at the first hurdle.

Paris - The two hard-right candidates for France's presidency - Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen - could fail before the first round of voting on April 10: Both say they are still fighting for the support they need from elected representatives.

France in the presidential election campaign: right-wing extremist Zemmour quarrels - "They don't have sponsorships"

"I don't have any security, it's very difficult," former journalist Zemmour said on a TV program on Sunday.

“We don't have the sponsorships.

This is a democratically appalling situation.

I've never been so worried.

I'm missing about fifty sponsorships," Le Pen told France Inter.

If you want to run for the post of head of state in France, you need 500 supporter signatures from elected officials.

These must be submitted by March 4th at 6:00 p.m.

Zemmour's situation is apparently a little more precarious than Le Pen's: he had recently collected 291 signatures.

The left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has 370 supporters so far, also has to fight.

Le Pen and Zemmour before the first presidential election before the end?

Rights make allegations

The French presidential election campaign is dominated by the issue of migration.

Le Pen and Zemmour are therefore counting on great opportunities - but could ultimately take votes away from each other.

The conservative Valérie Pécresse could be a laughing third party.

She already has the necessary 500 signatures, as does incumbent Emmanuel Macron, and the socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo.

However, the left camp is also facing massive internal competition.

With a view to the necessary "sponsorships", both Le Pen and Zemmour made allegations.

He and his advisors currently spend hours every day phoning France's mayors "to try to convince them," Zemmour said.

"Mayors tell me, 'Yes, you're great, we agree with you,' but they're scared," he claimed.

The reason is that the names of the supporters are published.

However, the system of "parrainages" is not new - only the procedure of transmission and publication was adjusted in the 2010s.

Zemmour referred to polls in which he was doing well.

Should he now not be able to stand as a candidate because of the missing signatures, the election would be "illegitimate".

"It doesn't make any sense," spokesman Le Pens Rassemblement National told radio station FranceInfo on Sunday.

"Marine Le Pen is Emmanuel Macron's main opponent in all the polls," but "other, less representative candidates have already qualified."

Macron leads in France polls - six candidates have been confirmed so far

According to the latest information from the Constitutional Council on Thursday, which collects supporters' signatures, six potential presidential candidates have so far achieved the necessary number of supporters.

Green Yannick Jadot is only missing 10 more signatures.

Zemmour, who has been convicted several times for incitement to hatred, was recently tied with the conservative Pécresse in the polls with 15 percent, but behind Macron with 25 percent and Le Pen with 17 percent.

He uses even more radical rhetoric to address similar issues to Le Pen and courts the same constituency.

In addition, he has already poached several heads of their party.

Macron has not officially declared his candidacy for a second term.

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