Bonapartists: Éric Zemmour

Éric Zemmour

A modern figure that I admire is that of Éric Zemmour, the journalist and author whose controversial opinions makes him unpopular in all the right circles. The origin of numerous polemics, his uncompromising style of debate and his right-of-center political and social views make him a rare gem in a profession known for producing endless quantities of manure.

Since Zemmour is a living person, I won't spend as much time on his biography as I did with Victor de Persigny, instead focusing on his works and his politics - since he is still capable of acting in a modern context. It would be expedient to point out that Zemmour rarely talks about his own political positions from a dogmatic perspective, that is, he talks of himself being a such-and-such or a this-and-that. I have heard him describe himself as a Gaullist and a Bonapartist, and inasmuch as I understand his ideas, those seem like accurate descriptors (he should know). But more on that later.

A younger Éric Zemmour.

Éric Zemmour was born on the last day in August, 1958, at Montreuil, in the départment of the Seine. Today his hometown is a notorious Parisian suburb, called Seine-Saint-Denis (some monarchists may recognize the name as it contains the Saint Denis cathedral, burial place of our kings and queens), or "92" for short. His parents were immigrants from Algeria, Berber Jews fleeing the Algerian War of 1954-1962, adapted their names for use in France (Roger and Lucette), and his father set up an ambulance-driving business, while young Eric was raised by his mother, his sisters, and his aunts.

Zemmour has said that being raised by women made him into a man, and appreciates his childhood. Unlike many Socialists, Zemmour can say that he grew up in the suburbs and so knows what it used to be like before the immigration waves. After graduating from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, he twice failed the application to the National School of Administration, and instead decided to enter journalism. He began work in 1986 as a political correspondent at the Quotidien de Paris, and over the years has written for numerous publications, including Valeurs Actualles (Contemporary Morals) and Le Figaro, a major French newspaper.

Zemmour has also published a few books: political biographies of such people as Edouard Balladur and Jacques Chirac, for example, but he has also written political works. In 2006 he published "The First Sex" which criticizes feminism and the feminization of French society, and in 2008 published "Little Brother", a fiction book that attacks "messianic anti-racism" as he has called it. In 2010 he released "French Melancholy", where he revisits the history of France. The book, which I have read and greatly enjoyed (I will write  review on it at some point), won the Incorrect Book Prize (awarded to those books qualified as going against the politically correct mindset).

Mélancolie française (2010)

The journalist's presence in the media since has been a breath of fresh air to some, and an annoyance to others. To a particular group of people, he is abominable, but those are the kinds of people you want to think of you as such - notably the "well-intentioned left" as he so often calls them.

He unabashedly describes himself as a reactionary, saying once "it was better before", and oftentimes reminding the people he appears on television with that the history of France does not begin with the Revolution, that there is nearly two thousand years of history accompanying it that have shaped our national character. He credits monarchy and Catholicism with having built France, but also recognizes the usefulness of the melting of religions into a national identity and the secularist laws as being beneficial in that respect.

His life story is that of the model immigrant (though he himself was born French in France, his parents having acquired French nationality), and he emphasizes how easy it used to be when immigrants were primarily of the same ethnic, cultural, and religious background as the natives, compared to now, when integration is a nightmarish failure which has resulted and can only result in violence. Zemmour's views on immigration, integration, and the role of ethnicity have greatly shaped my own, and I consider him a sort of "ideological" mentor, though neither him nor I subscribe to any particular "ideology", unless that ideology is France. His political positions, however, and as I have alluded to above, are, in my eyes, mostly beyond reproach - anti-Feminism, opposition to the fetishization of human rights, against the "gay culture", anti-liberal (economic, political, or social), and therefore pro-Patriarchy, pro-natural law, pro-"heteronormativity" (to use their term for normality) and pro-collectivist nationhood.

After having been a panelist on the literary-review and interview show "On n'est pas couché" ("We are not asleep"), Zemmour left with his co-panelist Éric Nalleau (together they were called "les Zérics") to found a more serious-style interview show, "Zemmour & Naulleau". Zemmour also has a  daily radio show on the RTL network and has a weekly debate with Nicolas Domenech on "Ca ce dispute" ("It is being argued"), where I have to say, he is often exasperated at his left-wing colleague's inability to see reason.

I would say most French nationalists appreciate Zemmour's no-nonsense, fact-supported and passionate defense of France and her values, political, cultural, or otherwise. I know some, largely of the legitimist or skinhead traditions, take issue with him being a Berber Jew, but they are not seeing the big picture, nor do they seem to properly understand what it means to become French - it is not solely a matter of religion or ethnicity.

Opening sequence to Zemmour & Naulleau.

Note: I realize my profiles aren't exactly stunning, but one day, in a mythical future where I am capable of focus, I may return to the, and edit them for further clarity.