French far right in turmoil as presidential election looms

 

Just as I was think the 2022 race for the Elysee was a somewhat quiet affair, it explodes into life with Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour, the rival far right candidates, at each other's throats. When Le Pen accused Zemmour of harbouring "a few Nazis" in his Reconquest party, a politician from the more house-trained centre-right observed that she was better placed to know of such things things. This is my look at the state of early campaigning for The National. Thanks as ever to the editor for consenting to its reproduction at Salut! ...

 

 

The French election campaign has come to life with a fierce war of words between the far-right candidates, Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour, that damages the chances of either replacing Emmanuel Macron as president.

Gilbert Collard, a member of European parliament and former French MP who switched camps to become a key aide to Mr Zemmour, accuses Marine Le Pen of “spitting bile” after she said her rival’s party was a melting pot of “traditionalist Catholics, pagans and a few Nazis”.