Éric Zemmour

Éric Zemmour (born 31 August 1958) is a French essayist, political journalist, author, and politician known for his critiques of multiculturalism, immigration policies, and the decline of French national identity. Born in Montreuil to Sephardic Jewish parents who fled Algeria during the war of independence, Zemmour began his career as a journalist at [[Le Figaro]], where he covered political affairs, and later gained prominence as a television commentator on channels like CNews, advocating for strict assimilation and restrictions on non-European immigration. His 2014 book Le Suicide français, which argues that elite policies since the 1970s have eroded France's cultural and demographic cohesion through mass immigration and weakened sovereignty, became a bestseller selling over 500,000 copies. In December 2021, he founded the Reconquête party to contest the erosion of French civilization, running as its presidential candidate in 2022 and obtaining 2,485,226 votes (7.07% of the national vote) in the first round, thereby influencing public discourse on identity politics despite not advancing to the runoff. Zemmour's forthright positions on Islam's incompatibility with secular republicanism, the need to prioritize French birth rates, and historical reinterpretations of Vichy France's role in deportations have resulted in several convictions under French laws prohibiting incitement to hatred and denial of crimes against humanity, including a €10,000 fine in 2025 for the latter.

Éric Zemmour was born on 31 August 1958 in Montreuil, a suburb east of Paris in the Seine-Saint-Denis department. His parents, Roger Zemmour and Lucette Lévy, were Berber Jews who had immigrated from Algeria to France in 1952, prior to the Algerian War of Independence.

The family originated from Algerian regions including Sétif, M’Sila, and Saint-Arnaud (now El Eulma), where Zemmour's forebears had lived as part of the Jewish community under French colonial rule. Roger's profession as an ambulancier involved frequent absences, leaving Lucette, a homemaker, as the primary caregiver during Zemmour's early years.

Éric Zemmour attended the Lucien-de-Hirsch Jewish school in Paris during his early years, in a non-mixed class, before continuing his education at the Yabné Jewish school group, which encompassed primary through secondary levels. These institutions emphasized Jewish cultural transmission alongside secular studies, aligning with his family's post-Algerian repatriation focus on integration into French society.