Arab News | Another far-right politician joins France presidential race

PARIS: French far-right politician Eric Zemmour said on Friday that he would run in next year’s presidential election, vowing to crack down on immigration and expel unemployed foreigners even if they were legal residents.

“I will be a candidate in the presidential election,” the head of the Reconquest party, who was a distant fourth in the last vote for the top job in 2022, told the BFMTV broadcaster.

He joins the fray as more prominent far-right candidate Marine Le Pen is eyeing her best chance at winning power next year when President Emmanuel Macron steps down, after a court in July reduced her ban on holding public office for a graft conviction.

The veteran politician from the anti-immigration National Rally party, who was runner-up to Macron in the last two elections, has been widely projected to lead in the first round of the vote.

Zemmour supports a halt to immigration as well as “remigration” of foreigners back to their countries.

“All foreign offenders must be sent back, even those who are not in prison,” he said.

“We must also, obviously, send back undocumented immigrants. We must also send back those who have been unemployed for a long time, and all those who live solely on welfare benefits,” he added.

Opinion polls have in recent weeks projected Le Pen to lead in the first round of the upcoming presidential elections.

A poll suggested this weekend that centrist ex-prime minister Edouard Philippe could make it to a second round against Le Pen, but only if his centrist rival Gabriel Attal steps down.

Otherwise hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon could be her opponent, the survey of 13,000 voters suggested.France