In Calais, Éric Zemmour flies by
Perched on a huge blockhouse facing the North Sea on Wednesday, Éric Zemmour read his speech on Europe. The pages flutter and the microphone has weaknesses. Around him, about forty journalists, about fifteen cameras, an oversized security service and, in the distance, five anti-Zemmour activists shouting into a megaphone: “We found you Zemmour, we found you! “. The reconquest candidate! replies to them with a tweet in the afternoon: “The collusion between certain journalists and the most violent extreme left is not only ideological. It is also concrete, assumed, aggressive, and very dangerous for democracy and defenders. »
La collusion entre certains journalistes et l'extrême-gauche la plus violente n'est pas seulement idéologique. Elle est également concrète, assumée, agressive, et très dangereuse pour la démocratie et ses défenseurs. https://t.co/LVjugfnG9t
— Eric Zemmour (@ZemmourEric) January 19, 2022
To prevent his visit from being disrupted, the far-right candidate had given the meeting place to the press only at noon. Half an hour later, everyone was crowding at the end of the Chemin des Dunes, on the edge of the former “great jungle” of Calais (2015-2016). At the time, 11,000 people lived there, making the port city the largest slum in Europe.
“We must expel all illegal immigrants”
At the entrance to the path, as in the days of the “jungle”, 11 police officers filter the arrivals. Basically, a dozen others watch the surroundings and carry out a second check. Another 300 meters before reaching the top of the bunker. On spaces that have become natural again, white horses frolic. It is from up there that the candidate has chosen to speak. In the background, the port (which he will visit in the afternoon) and the Huntsmann-Tioxide factory which closed and put 300 people out. And the English Channel, regularly crossed by fragile embarkations loaded with migrants. Nearly 40 dead since September 2021, and at least 30,000 attempts to cross to the English coast…
“We must expel all illegal immigrants and stop the suction pumps: social security, medical aid, housing aid, everything”, asserts the polemicist. In the distance, about twenty local activists wave a blue-white-red flag, shouting: “Zemmour president! Zemmour president! »
From the top of his perch, Éric Zemmour verses in lyricism: “Calais is the symbolic border, the sentinel against invaders. Macron is the bourgeois of Calais with the noose around their necks, who give the keys to the invaders. The Spaniards and the English yesterday, the migrants today. I am coming to collect the keys. Calais must become France again! Antoine Diers, one of his spokespersons, and former member of the office of the mayor of Calais, did try, for the occasion, to renew ties with his former employer: Natacha Bouchart (LR) refused to receive Eric Zemmour. On the spot, no elected.
“Rint’a t’barak, Eric”
The candidate goes down and cuts through the crowd of journalists to shake a few hands. Wrapped in a blue scarf, Sarah Knafo, his main adviser and company, hugs him closely at each contact with the public, to appear in a photo at his side. Then the candidate moves away to have lunch in a restaurant opposite the town hall of Marck-en-Calaisis, a neighboring town of Calais. A handful of hand-picked journalists are invited. A few anti-Zemmour activists approach the establishment. In front of the restaurant, a local elected official witnesses the deployment of the police. “Are you invited?” “, we ask him. ” Certainly not ! she replies. Véronique Dumont is a member of Les Républicains (LR), regional councilor and vice-president of the Calaisis conurbation. She campaigned for Xavier Bertrand during the LR primary.
It is 2:30 p.m., the candidate has an appointment at the port of Calais for a visit with its president, Jean-Marc Puissesseau. “I welcome all applicants. Without photos”, assumes the president of the company operating the ports of Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer. Return to Marck on the Transmarck logistics zone which runs along the A 16 motorway. There again, activists are waiting for him: “Rint’a t’barak, Éric”, “Welcome Refugees” title the signs they are waving. Zemmour is quickly extracted from the site; It’s finish. In Calais, this Wednesday, January 19, the passage to Calais of the polemicist, who promised to be explosive, was ultimately only a slice of innocuous and furtive electoral campaign.