how Eric Zemmour’s party relies on permanent agitation to exist

The method is well established. The first thing is to find a subject of indignation. Then to launch the media machine by multiplying the messages on social networks, press releases or by creating online petitions. Finally, when the cause lends itself to it, one can organize or support a demonstration or a rally by stirring up the maximum number of activists. This is how, at regular intervals, the Reconquest! continues to interfere in the public debate.

Since the relative failure of its founder Éric Zemmour in the presidential election (7% of the vote) then the more bitter one suffered in the legislative elections, during which it was unable to elect a single deputy, the far-right formation relies on a form of agit-prop (agitation and propaganda) to compensate for its lack of visibility.

Conferences of radical imams, churches threatened with destruction, education of children endangered according to them by anti-racism or the LGBT community: the range of mobilizations is vast, and each commune in France can become the site of a political battle. and ideological to carry out. Latest examples, the two demonstrations against the reception of migrants pushed by Reconquête!, which took place on Saturday February 25 in Saint-Brevin-les-Pins (Loire-Atlantique) and in Beyssenac (Corrèze).

An offensive digital strategy

It all starts on the Internet. “We have a digital strategy based on several pillars,” explains Samuel Lafont, who is responsible for it within the party. First by creating viral content, videos and visuals, “easy to produce and share”. “Volunteer digital activists” are then mobilized, via loops on Telegram or Discord messaging, to disseminate them massively on social networks. They are frequently used to “create trends”, especially on Twitter, by repeatedly sharing hashtags.

🔴 Defend your campaigns and protect the French!

See you this Saturday in Saint-Brévin to say no to the installation of migrants next to a school!

➡️ https://t.co/5ddsrzWMII#PasDeMigrantsDansNosVillages#ReconquêteEnActionpic.twitter.com/T3p2D94xcD

— RECONQUEST! (@Reconquete_off) February 21, 2023

Reconquest! has also made a specialty of multiplying petitions. Immigration, heritage, low emission zones… everything is a pretext for the publication of a text, where the link with the party of Éric Zemmour is very discreet. Thus, “40,000 people signed the text ‘Let’s protect our children at school'”, which denounces “the LGBT soup” and “the Islamization” of which schoolchildren are victims, claims Samuel Lafont. The e-mail address that must be provided to sign can then be used as a receptacle for the many leaflets and press releases on the following mobilization topics. “E-mailing”, an “ultra-powerful” propaganda tool, will soon be done “by department, by canton and soon by municipality”, assures the communicator.

A useful territorialization to be able to multiply local events. Here again, the operation follows a “standard process”, explains Stanislas Rigault, president of Generation Z, the youth branch of the party. “Alerts go up by the federations, we trigger local and then national media coverage, then we organize rallies based on local collectives”, details the activist.

Reconquest!, a “useful” party despite its lack of elected officials

In Callac (Côtes-d’Armor), the offensive bore fruit. The pressure put on by supporters of Éric Zemmour pushed mayor Jean-Yves Rolland (various left) to give up welcoming migrants to revitalize his town of 2,200 inhabitants. A “victory” for Reconquête!, which sees in it the success of its method. “It shows that our party is useful even if it is not represented in the National Assembly”, welcomes Stanislas Rigault. “Today we have more victories than the 89 deputies of the RN. They didn’t get anything voted on, got nothing”, even compares another Reconquest executive!.

“These permanent actions have a dual role, analyzes Marion Jacquet-Vaillant, researcher at the Center for Constitutional and Political Studies. Externally, obtain results to communicate on. And, internally, count their strengths. This activity is inspired by “recipes” from “identity” groups, the same ones that “allowed the Bloc identitaire or Génération identitaire to have a public existence with only a few thousand members”. They are also based on the same ideological base: “All their actions, despite the diversity of subjects, are oriented towards a common idea: the maintenance, transmission or defense of identity”, observes the specialist in this movement.

Death threats and bomb threats

By publicizing a reactionary and xenophobic discourse, multiplying references to the concept of the “great replacement”, Reconquête! loves ultra-right supporters. At the demonstration against the project for a reception center for asylum seekers (Cada) in Saint-Brevin, one could come across members of Action Française, fundamentalist activists from Civitas and a few dozen men in black, balaclavas on the face and Celtic crosses in standard. Bad associations with sometimes reprehensible methods.

In Callac, several elected officials received death threats, pressures that accelerated the decision to abandon the Horizon project. “Reconquest! was the political showcase for an entire far-right aggregate,” Laure-Line Inderbitzin, deputy mayor of Callac, told AFP in January. “As soon as a subject gains momentum on social networks, it drains its share of thugs, retorts Stanislas Rigault. Insulting or malicious people do not interest us, we want a calm and intelligent political debate. »

Dissolutions that multiply

Beyond the anonymous threats, the punch actions have multiplied in recent months. Since the dissolution of the Social Bastion in 2019, then of Generation Identity in 2021, many factions have been talked about. The ultra-right group Zouaves Paris, suspected of being involved in the violence which marred a meeting of Éric Zemmour in December 2021, was dissolved in January 2022.

Another group, Bordeaux nationaliste, dissolved in early February, saw eight of its members placed in police custody for their involvement in xenophobic violence last June. In Toulouse, it is French Fury which is activated, denounced by the right-wing mayor Jean-Luc Moudenc. “There is a violence that is skyrocketing throughout the territory, denounces Raphaël Arnault, spokesperson for the Young Anti-Fascist Guard, which militates, sometimes in a muscular way, against ultra-right groups. They feel like they are growing wings. »

The subject even worries Reconquête!, where “the threat of a form of violent action is a sensitive issue, because it would strongly harm their image”, notes Marion Jacquet-Vaillant. Far from punchy actions, Éric Zemmour’s next foray into public debate will be in bookstores. A book, with a title still kept secret, is announced in bookstores on March 16.

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Far-right activist families

The “identities”. This current is characterized in substance by racialism (skin color as an element of national identity) and Islamophobia (Islam incompatible with living in France), and in form by a high mastery of agit-prop methods. Identity Generation was dissolved in March 2021.

Nationalists. Regularly hit by dissolutions (notably L’Œuvre française in 2013), this movement, which adopted the Celtic cross as its symbol, was scattered among multiple local groups.

The Maurrassians. A far-right family more than a century old combining nationalism and monarchism, Action Française has combined since its creation doctrinal training and agitation campaigns.

The fundamentalists. The Civitas political movement is, on the political level, the counterpart of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (schismatic of the Catholic Church).

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