"Éric Zemmour is running for president in France. Americans should pay attention," writes Micah Meadowcroft.
Éric Zemmour announced his candidacy for the presidency of France in a video Tuesday. His announcement speech is grand in its scope, grave in its assessments, and martial in its resolve. Yet it is full of hope.
Americans, too, can find some hope in candidate Zemmour. Like Donald Trump descending that golden escalator half a decade ago, he represents a frank (non, je ne regrette rien) recognition of the facts: that the few no longer take responsibility for the good of the many, that things are bad, have been bad, and will continue to get worse if what must be done is not done—and that this means it cannot be left to the professionals.
Readers of The American Conservative will not find this development a total surprise. My colleague Rod Dreher has highlighted Zemmour in a number of posts, and the Polish writer and analyst Krzysztof Tyszka-Drozdowski wrote a long profile of the writer-turned-politico’s thought for TAC, arguing that he resembles no one in the American political legendarium quite so much as Pat Buchanan. I think there’s something to that, though I remain partial to the Donald comparison: France is still the land of philosophes, of punditry and historical revision as reality television. We had The Apprentice; they have Le grand débat and incitement lawsuits.
