Far-right politician Eric Zemmour has formally entered next year’s French presidential race. He is promising a sharp cut in immigration, and the expulsion of foreigners who are out of work, even if they live in France legally.
Issued on: 11/11/2026 - 13:55
Speaking on television on Tuesday, the leader of the Reconquête! party said he was standing to “preserve a French France so that our future is French”.
Zemmour, who came fourth in the 2022 election, wants “two million fewer immigrants by the end of the five-year term”.
To get there, he plans to deport foreign nationals serving prison sentences, along with “foreign unemployed people who have been out of work for more than six months”, whatever their residency status.
The 68-year-old former journalist, who went into politics five years ago, had already said in mid-September that he would run. At the time, however, his team insisted it was not yet a formal declaration.
His candidacy puts him up against a much bigger name on the far right. Marine Le Pen of the anti-immigration National Rally is widely expected to come top in the first round. She sees next year’s vote, when President Emmanuel Macron steps down, as her best chance yet of winning power.
Le Pen, who lost to Macron in both the 2017 and 2022 run-offs, was thrown a lifeline in July. An appeals court shortened her ban from public office over an embezzlement conviction, opening the way for her to stand.
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