France: Republican Peltier MP joins far-right Zemour supporters

A Conservative MP, who until last year was second in the center-right party (Republicans), said today that he joins the supporters of the far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemour.

Guillaume Peltier has said he does not trust Republican presidential candidate Valerie Pecres, who he says is ideologically too close to center-right President Emanuel Macron.

Peltier told Europe 1 radio that Zemour was “the only candidate capable of inspiring the right and defeating Macron” in the April presidential election.

Zemour, 63, who has been convicted of inciting hatred and has said he wants to save France from the decline and minorities that “oppress the majority”, has made a career by testing the limits of political correctness.

It is not clear how harmful Peltier’s secession will be for Pekres. The latter had not done much to hide the overlap of his political beliefs with those of Zemour and other far-right figures.

In the presidential election for the presidential anointing of the center-right party, Peltier had supported Eric Siotti, whose views on strengthening state power in the degraded immigrant neighborhoods and defending the French national identity approached those of the far right.

Pekres defeated Siotti in December in the second round of qualifiers, but Sioti won almost 40% of the vote and analysts now say that part of that percentage could follow Peltier in the Zemour camp.

Polls show Zemour lagging behind Macron, Pekres and Marin Lepen of the traditional far-right National Alarm party. However, the race for a seat in the second round of the presidential election is breast to breast.

Source: AMPE