The peaceful atmosphere on the street of the beautiful French resort of Nice in early spring is misleading. The wealthy town is one of the centers of power of the conservative right-wing in southern France. It is a microcosmos of the main battle for power in the French presidential elections where the spirit of France and the future of the French right will be decided.
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The tourist town has been controlled for decades by the Republican right, or, to be more precise, the right-wing of The Republicans, which has continued in the path of the founder of the Fifth Republic, Charles de Gaulle. In Nice, as in most of southern France, the Le Pen family party in its various incarnations – in the past the National Front and today the National Rally – has since the 1990s enjoyed high levels of support. Now, there is another challenger for the hearts and minds of right-wing voters in Nice and the south of France, the Jewish journalist Éric Zemmour and his newly-formed party, Reconquête! ("Recapture").
Nice is a reflection of the political drama ongoing in the French right: Splits and in-fighting that are distancing the right from power exactly at a time when the conditions and circumstances for it to return to the Élysée have ripened after long and frustrating decades in opposition. The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi – who in the past served as a minister in a right-wing government led by The Republicans and ran with the party for the mayorship of Nice – set up his own party and hasn't hidden his support for President Emmanuel Macron. The local candidate for leadership of The Republicans, the hawkish Éric Ciotti, could have attracted many right-wing voters who want to see in the Élysée Palace a president who implements a clear right-wing policy and is committed to maintaining France's national identity, personal security, and putting a brake on mass immigration. But he lost to Valérie Pécresse whose support levels in the presidential race are dropping by the day.
The regional branch of Zemmour's party underwent severe tremors three weeks ago when its head, Benoît Kandel walked out following rumors that Philippe Vardon, the leader of the New Right movement, and in the past a senior member of the National Front, who has a reputation for violent tendencies. "I don't want a party that is a replica of the National Front and we don't want the Nazi songs of Vardon and his friends," Kandel declared. Vardon didn't join forces with Zemmour in the end, and this week set up his own party.
Even though Zemmour's chances of making the second round of the presidential elections are slim, to say the least, many National Front voters and activists have come on board to help him. They aren't enamored with the moderate, centrist branding adopted by Marine Le Pen, but if, as expected, she runs in the second round against Macron, they will put up with the stench and vote for her. Many French voters – if they vote at all – will cast their ballot in the presidential elections for the candidate they dislike the least, to prevent a victory for the one they hate the most. It's a hate vote, not a support vote.
A political soap opera
In Nice and its environs, there is a fascinating, but explosive demographic mix between the nationalist "French Algerians," who came to the town after France relinquished its Algerian colony, and the Jewish and Muslim immigrants from the countries of the Mahgreb. Six years ago, Nice experienced one of the worst-ever terrorist attacks committed by Muslim extremists on French soil when on July 14, 2006, Bastille Day, an ISIS terrorist ran a truck into revelers celebrating the national holiday on the beach-side promenade, murdering 86 people. Two years ago, in October 2020, a radical Islamist stabbed three people to death at Nice's famous Notre Dame basilica.
The town is no stranger to violence, but instead of uniting against it, the local right is split: Some fear "right-wing extremists" who in their view distort the significance of French patriotic feelings, and thus support the center-left president, Emmanuel Macron. The "extremists" Le Pen and Zemmour, accuse each other of a lack of patriotism: According to Zemmour, Le Pen has become part of the political establishment and has abandoned her nationalistic principles; Le Pen and her camp claim that Zemmour is the "extreme right: and that they have become the legitimate representatives of the French right.
"Dallas" is how the local media label the goings-on in the ranks of the right, in a reference to the 1980s American TV show that dealt with the rivalries in a Texan oil family. The rivalries between the camps on the right are so intense that even if most right-wing voters rally behind one of the candidates in the second round of voting for the presidency, polls forecast that they won't achieve the majority needed to oust Macron. Is that reminiscent of the situation in Israel? A lot of right-wing French voters, both Jews and non-Jews see a similarity.
The port of Nice, where yachts are moored to the feet of the castle that overlooks the town, is packed every day of the week. On one side is the headquarters of The Republicans party. Not far away, a group of Zemmour supporters is handing out pamphlets to passers-by explaining the main points of the Jewish presidential candidate's manifesto.
Zemmour wants to "recapture" France. His party doesn't yet have a headquarters in Nice due to both security and economic considerations. Their work is mostly out on the streets. Recapture incidentally is the slogan of the Identitarian movement (from the word identity) which is considered an extreme right-wing and anti-Muslim movement that attracts primarily young people The Zemmour activists in the Nice port, however, are older and are a mix of former National Front voters and Jews.
Such an amalgam of forces would not even have been imaginable 30 years ago. Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front was considered a bastion of antisemitism and Holocaust denial. His daughter, Marine Le Pen pushed her father out of positions of influence in the party and courted the Jewish vote. But for many Jews, she remained an abomination.
But the Islamic threat enables Éric Zemmour to create a partnership between two publics who in the past opposed each other. Since declaring his candidacy, Zemmour has claimed that he is the only one that can create unity in the ranks of the "real" right. He even managed to recruit to the party Marine Le Pen's popular niece Marion Maréchal, one of the pillars of the "New Right" in France. However, in the eyes of the general public, Zemmour has inherited Le Pen's identification with the radical right and has made her seem more moderate and acceptable.
Disappointed with the traditional right
Sylvie, a pensioner in her 60s, says that even though she has always voted for the right, Zemmour led her to hit the streets and become an activist for the first time in her life. "All we have experienced from the leaders of the right in the past 20 years is disappointment," she says. "When Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president in 2007, we had high hopes that finally there was someone in the Élysée who would shake up France and put it back on the right path, that he would return France to the French. It didn't happen.
Since then, I have voted for Marine Le Pen but she too has become a kind of center. Zemmour, unlike other politicians, doesn't care what other people think. He says what many French people think but are afraid to say. 'if we don't act now. France will be finished within a few years. Eradicated.' It's now or never. Zemmour succeeds in giving people the feeling that there is still hope."
Alexander Berabi, a businessman, and a member of the Jewish community is also among those handing out pamphlets with Zemmour's manifest. In the past, he voted for Sarkozy. Now, he too, for the first time in his life, has become a political activist. "Le Pen isn't suitable to serve as president," he says explaining his support for Zemmour. "She doesn't have the required skills for the position. She has also very much moderated her positions in an attempt to attract the center. But if she faces off in the second round against Macron I will vote for her without hesitating. The Jewish leadership still boycotts her because it can afford to do so because of the evaluation that she won't win the elections in any case.
Macron gave the heads of the Jewish community a lot of respect, so they go with them. But among the rank and file members of the Jewish community, the atmosphere is very different. Support for Zemmour is enormous. We are experiencing terrible violence at the hands of Muslim migrants and the authorities do nothing. My nieces were at the Otzar Hatorah school in Toulouse when four Jewish students were murdered a decade ago by an Islamist. It's a trauma that hasn't healed for all the family. I have lived in other countries, in the United States and Romania. There, there is fear and respect for the police. Here the police are afraid of the criminals. It's a little reminiscent of the situation in Israel."
The pamphlets are running out quickly. Some of the passers-by ignore the activists, others react with hostility, and many say with a smile that they already have the pamphlet at home. The activists call their local leader to resupply them. Her name is Rebecca Tourjeman, a 37-year-old surgeon born in Kfar Saba, whose parents returned to Nice when she was three years old and she has lived here since.
"We were orphans without a real right-wing party for a long time," says Rebecca explaining why she is backing Zemmour. "We have followed Zemmour on TV for 15 years and his honesty persuaded us I don't care if people say that we are "Zemmourists" - extreme right-wingers. When I ask people why they think that they have no answer. They just the empty slogans they heard on TV. In the past few months, 120,000 people have joined the party. There has been nothing there has never been anything like it in the history of French politics. Zemmour's appearances on TV attract the most viewers. His rallies are packed with supporters. He may yet pull off a surprise, but if Le Pen reaches the second round, I will vote for her. Just not Macron."
Rebecca and Alexander see a lot of similarities between the right-wing wars in Israel and the wars of the right in France, including the fact that parts of the right have lost their political identity. "Pécresse is center and Le Pen's party has turned left in its economic social platform and by abandoning its anti-European Union positions," says Rebecca. "So the voters have two options: Zemmour or the traditional conservatives and Macron for the progressives."
Rebecca doesn't feel uncomfortable about Zmmour's closeness with the Identitarians. "It's not the extreme right of old," she explains. "They want France to remain French. There are people here who have been attacked and people who defended themselves but wound up in jail while the assailants were sent for civics lessons. It's reminiscent of the situation in Israel. And I hope you don't reach such a situation. The values that Zemmour defends, belonging to a nation, are also part of the values that I grew up on. Naturally, the French want to retain their identity as we the Jews have done for 2,000 years."
Sarkozy's legacy
Despite the grim forecasts in the polls, at the headquarters of The Republicans, the activists are planning to man as many polls as possible in Sunday's vote, and they still hope that the race for the presidency will not end for them then. A banner hangs on the front of The Republicans' headquarters, one that could easily serve Le Pen or Zemmour. "For France to stay French."
Alexander Serjian is head of the young guard of The Republicans in Nice. He studied law and is preparing for a career as a lawyer. His ancestors came to France from the Armenian areas of Turkey following the genocide that began in 1915. He is a fourth-generation of successful immigrants who have become part of the diverse French identity. Serjian says that the mayor of Nice, Estrosi, is an opportunist because of his support for Macron. "He was hard right and sacrificed his ideas, unlike Éric Ciotti, who has remained true to his conservative and nationalist principles out of an understanding that the world is progressing and therefore there is a need for a reformist, not a revolutionary approach."
"A basic issue for the conservative right is the desire not to differentiate others and not to differentiate ourselves from others. We want to absorb people. Unlike the right-wing, we don't oppose Islam. Muslims can exercise their religious traditions in France. On the other hand, we speak openly about the problems with radical Islam. Beyond that, we are sovereign patriots, not nationalists. We don't want France to be exceptionalist in the international arena, but we want France to have its own voice in the world, just as De Gaulle go called for."
I put to Serjian that Zemmour also claims to represent De Gaulle's Gaullism and Le Pen too speaks in the name of Gaullism. "Where does the border run between you and them?" I ask him.
"It is surprising that Le Pen has adopted De Gaulle, as the roots of her party are firmly entrenched in cooperation with the Nazis," says Serjian. "As for Zemmour, things are more complex. He has an interesting worldview. But the solutions he offers are not good. We come with practical solutions. Not with slogans. We have a broad party apparatus, people with practical capabilities and experience who will enable us to run the affairs of the state. One of the big problems of the Macron administration is that he doesn't have experienced people who were able to deal with the many crises of the past few years, and that is also a problem with both Le Pen and Zemmour's parties."
The name of Nicola Sarkozy, the former president who is up to his neck in legal proceedings concerning various alleged corruption affairs, is often brought up in the French media as one of the senior Republicans who support Macron from behind the scenes. In exchange, they report, Sarkozy has demanded to determine the identity of the next prime minister. Serjian doesn't believe that Sarkozy is working to bring down Pécresse to create the conditions for his return and a run for the presidency in five years' time. "I would be happy if he returned to politics, but I don't think it will happen," he says.
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"Just as with Netanyahu in Israel, we are witnessing the over-enthusiasm of the authorities to keep bringing up new cases against Sarkozy. The impression is that the investigations are always against the same people that come from the right. We need to formulate new ideological programs. In many Western countries, there is a populist crisis that impacts the right, but also the left. We need to return to our ideologies, to talk about identity, freedom, and authority. It won't happen immediately. But over time, we need to build ourselves anew for the long run with a new generation of politicians."
"And if Le Pen faces off against Macron, who will you vote for? I ask. "In the meantime, I would like to believe that Pécresse will represent the right in the second round," Serjian says, shirking my question elegantly.
