The French radical right-wing politician Eric Zemmour officially announced his candidacy for the presidential elections, proposing a negative immigration that would remove two million foreigners from the country.
© Daniel Perron / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images
10/11/2026
by
Lusa
O french radical right politician and former journalist Éric Zemmour officially announced today the candidacy for the presidential elections of the country, proposing to “maintain French France”, with a “negative immigration” rate that removes two million foreigners from the country.
“I launch my candidacy to ensure the preservation of a French France and for our future to be French”, because “no candidate, no program is able to halt our decline,” said the president of the party Reconquite! to TF1 television station.
The former 68-year-old journalist, who was fourth in the previous election in 2022 (7.07%), defended, among other things, the principle of a “negative immigration”, stating that he wishes to have “less than 2 million immigrants at the end of the five-year term”.
To this end, it intends to expel foreigners who have committed crimes and are in prison, as well as “foreigners who have been unemployed for more than six months” — even those in a regular situation —, an even more rigid position than their previous proposals.
“There is nothing criminal or barbaric about it,” he argued.
Zemmour promised to hold a referendum on “migration policy as a whole”, on the argument that “it is not up to a constitutional judge” to “rule in place of the people”.
Prior to the announcement of his entry into the race, the far-right candidate appeared with only about 4% of the voting intentions in the polls — well behind his rival of the National Union Party, Marine Le Pen, and also Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the France Unsubmissive party (extreme left), as well as other important left, centre and right competitors.
Zemmour, convicted on several occasions — including incitement to racial hatred — has declared himself “victim of judicial harassment” for “delides of opinion”. He also stated that he intends to “abolate” the “liberticide law” on which he was convicted.
The audiovisual regulator, Arcom, has filed justice after recent statements by Zemmour on several channels, interpreted as an incitement to discrimination. The episode occurred shortly after October 17, a date marked by demonstrations involving acts of violence and looting.
Even before your candidacy was confirmed, Marine Le Pen supporters devalued your reach.