Racism and the Shadow Army: This Is What Was Revealed by a French Journalist Who Infiltrated Eric Zemmour’s Election Campaign

Murad Jandali | 2 years ago

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Shocking secrets revealed by the young French journalist, Vincent Bresson, in his new book, excerpts of which were published by the Guardian newspaper on February 17, 2022, on the campaign practices of the likely candidate for the French presidential elections, the far-right Eric Zemmour, 63, two months before the elections scheduled for next April.

Bresson, 27, a freelance French journalist who writes for newspapers such as Le Monde and who infiltrated Eric Zemmour’s presidential election team, said he was a witness to a racist culture and Facebook campaigns led by a secret cyber army, in addition to the frequent modifications made to the page of the far-right debaters, which is the most viewed in France.

 

Racist Practices

Journalist Bresson confirmed in his book At the Heart of Generation Z, which was published on Thursday, January 17, that he infiltrated Zemmour’s election team and lived in its atmosphere for 3 full months.

He joined Generation Z, the youth group that supported Zemmour's ideas, which the French journalist described as extremely racist.

Bresson also mentioned how on his first night with a group of young activists tasked with hanging posters, in October 2021, he heard someone use the word 'niggers', but no one moved.

“In fact, it seems that some Zemmourists will always see you as less French. You will always find yourself facing questions as to whether everyone in France deserves equal treatment under the potential presidency of Zemmour,”  the journalist added in his book.

He also said that he had witnessed a conversation between two prominent members talking about black car park guards at an exhibition center on the outskirts of Paris, as they referred to those guards in the conversation as (Mamadou), which is an African Francophone name used in France to describe black workers and is considered a racial insult.

Bresson's book reveals shocking promises made by far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, and he pledged, if he won, to prevent families from giving their children non-French first names, especially Mohammed, but would allow them to use it in the middle name field.

It is noteworthy that presidential candidate Eric Zemmour has been prosecuted several times for racial insult, incitement to hatred or appealing for crimes against humanity during the past ten years. He was mostly released, but was convicted in two cases of inciting hatred, and he is still appealing in the third case.

In turn, the political writer and lawyer Mr. Zaid al-Azem saw in a statement to Al-Estiklal that: “Eric Zemmour carries a project of persecution against Arabs, Muslims and all foreigners, especially black people who reside in France, who have obtained French citizenship or who have not yet obtained it.”

“Zemmour's project is to deprive the aforementioned groups of many rights, such as social assistance provided by the state, restricting them and issuing legislation and laws that violate their privacy. Therefore, Zemmour’s victory in the French presidency raises the fears of those groups residing in the country,” he added.

“In addition, there is a dangerous theory proposed by Zemmour, which is called the (Great Substitution Theory). It is circulating among the far-right and closely linked to conspiracy theory and xenophobia,” Mr. al-Azem also noted.

 

Cyber Army

Bresson added in his book, he was amazed at the speed of his integration into the group. He was promoted to an elite list of trusted individuals assigned to sleep at Zemmour's team headquarters in the 8th arrondissement of the French capital, in order to act as security guards in exchange for signing a book, getting a picture, or having lunch with Zemmour.

Bresson also joined Zemmour’s highly sophisticated online secret campaign, which is being run via encrypted Telegram chat groups by the candidate's director of digital strategy, Samuel Lafont, a hard-right supporter.

Lafont made Zemmour’s campaign popular among young people, by transmitting an image of warlord (Zemmour), which was formed on social media such as TikTok, Twitter or even Twitch.

“This is not a public job at all, it's a covert job. This is not an ethical way to run an election campaign,” Bresson explained.

According to the book, Zemmour uses the shadow army from behind the scenes. They are volunteer cyber battalions that include large and diverse groups on social media platforms, Facebook and others, with the aim of promoting these ideas, and gaining more supporters.

While the book describes how the military is ordered to join a variety of Facebook groups, which range from fans of the late French singer Johnny Hallyday to the fans of Lance and Lyon football clubs, and ending with pizza lovers, anti-vaccination, and radical protest movements.

They copy and paste content from the central campaign site, where they can post the same content across 20 different groups. It's about creating the impression that there are a lot of people in this massive online movement, according to Bresson.

The book revealed another unit, known as WikiZedia, it is tasked with modifying the Wikipedia pages associated with Zemmour, especially the single view page that was viewed 5.2 million times in 2021, this makes it the most visited page in the online encyclopedia in France.

Bresson also saw an Internet strategy document that says WikiZedia people are supposed to make Zemmour as visible as possible on Wikipedia, by including links and citations to his views on as many topics as possible, as well as listing all his TV interviews.

Bresson also referred to the statements of a French Wikipedia manager, Jules, who said that WikiZedia’s activities are unprecedented for a political party in France, and they run counter to the site's core principles of neutrality and objectivity.

In this context, the lawyer, Mr. Zaid al-Azem confirmed that “there is a lot of interaction on Eric Zemmour’s Facebook page, even though it has been a few months since it was created.”

“This, according to social media specialists, indicates that there are powerful media machines and a shadow Facebook army operating within Zemmour’s campaign, which proves that hundreds of thousands of interactors on his page are not real and are like electronic flies,” he added.

“All of the above gives further evidence of the existence of major companies behind Eric Zemmour, taking advantage of the so-called (Worry Trade), and showing that Zemmour's supporters are in the millions. This experience contributed to spreading propaganda that greatly affected the decisions of many immigrants and pushed them to leave France during the last period, after they were convinced that Zemmour would win the presidency of France,” he said.

Regarding Zemmour’s racist and hostile statements to a significant part of the population of the country that he has nominated himself for the presidency, Mr. al-Azem said: “From my point of view as a jurist, Zemmour’s statements would create a civil war between the components of France, and therefore he should be held accountable for it and referred to the judiciary.”

Rise or Withdrawal?

Controversial Zemmour has achieved a prominent rise in the opinion polls since the beginning of the year, even surpassing the Republican candidate, Valerie Pecres, and the far-right candidate, Marianne Lupin; meanwhile, current President Emmanuel Macron still leads the polls.

On his part, lawyer Mr. Zaid al-Azem said in a statement to Al-Estiklal that: “Eric Zemmour, as a person may be a passing phenomenon, but his ideas are not at all, because the prevailing trend today in all of Europe and not only in France is the extreme right.”

“A large section of the French and Europeans is experiencing a severe identity crisis due to waves of immigration, asylum and the Russian absurdity, which fears the European far-right parties from the new element, the coming element, and replacement, as if Europe becomes after 100 years with an Islamic majority,” he asserted.

“The far-right supports Eric Zemmour’s campaign more than Marine Le Pen, because the latter will not be able to reach the presidency because of her financial problems and her problems with her supporters, and with her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the modern movement of the extreme right,” Mr. al-Azem pointed out.

“The newspapers and channels of the extreme right have, over the past period, extensively introduced Eric Zemmour to the French in order to get used to him, among the most important far-right media outlets that supported Zemmour were CNEWS, where he was working as an analyst before he resigned from it in order to run for the presidency, and Valeurs actuelles magazine,” he also said.

“Eric Zemmour will not be able to defeat Emmanuel Macron if he reaches the second round of the upcoming April elections, because all French voters from outside the far-right will sympathize with Macron against Zemmour, as happened in the 2002 elections when Jacques Chirac was more sympathized with over Marine Le Pen's father, and like the 2017 elections, when Macron more sympathized with over Marine Le Pen,” Mr. al-Azem stressed.

Despite Zemmour's announcement of his intention to run for the presidency and his progress in the opinion polls. However, it is not yet clear whether his name will be on the ballot paper.

AFP revealed on February 20 that the far-right candidate Eric Zemmour said that it is very possible that he will not get 500 approvals from elected officials across France by March 4, to be able to participate in the elections scheduled for next April 10-24; an obstacle also faced by rival Marine Le Pen.

Zemmour complained that the regime was biased against those from outside the world of politics. However, if Zemmour is unable to collect a quorum of signatures, he will not be able to complete his electoral candidacy file and will have to withdraw.

 

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