Nothing left

Éric Zemmour knows how to attract attention. In the press and on television, the far-right French intellectual rails against feminism and Muslim immigration, portraying his country as a nation in decline from the loss of traditional Christian values—though he’s Jewish—even espousing the anti-Semitic “great replacement” conspiracy theory. After recent polling showed Zemmour could be a serious contender in next year’s presidential race, major media outlets in Europe and the United States wrote about his prospects—and his obvious similarities to a certain former U.S. president. Could he be, as The Independent put it, “Le Trump”? The bigger question in Zemmour’s rise is what says about France. The New York Times reports that “France has grown more conservative in recent years.” The BBC explains that “French politics has shifted to the right.” The Guardian even sees this national transformation accelerating, editorializing that “on immigration and cultural questions, France appears to be moving rightwards at a fast clip.” Is this what’s going on?

Marc Weitzmann is a French journalist and the author of 12 books, including Hate, on the rise of anti-Semitism in France. Weitzmann doesn’t agree that his country is shifting to the right. He thinks right and left are outdated political categories. Weitzmann does see a growing reactionary politics that spans the ideological spectrum in France, though—a yearning for lost traditions and a bygone way of life; and he sees President Emmanuel Macron, a technocratic businessman and embodiment of modernity, as having failed to communicate his agenda or deal with national-security issues following a series of terrorist attacks, creating an opening for Zemmour. Weitzmann says that France faces a national climate of fear and pessimism as well as the same “general crisis of identity” afflicting many countries around the world: “What is it to be American? What is it to be French? What does that mean today, as we’re all trapped by this global and technological way of speaking and thinking? What happens to our national characters?” …

Graham Vyse: How do you see what’s happening in French political life?

Marc Weitzmann: First of all, I don't think France has shifted to the right. France has always been to the right, culturally speaking. There’s been a long tradition of anti-modernism.