Gavin Mortimer | The Spectator columnists & writers

Eric Zemmour’s big weakness has been exposed

George W Bush will forever be in debt to The Donald. Before Trump became the 45th president of the United States, the man nicknamed 'Dubya' was widely considered by many Americans to be the most inept. Then came Trump. No longer was Bush a clown. The American left forget how they'd demonised him and looked wistfully to a time when there was dignity in the Oval Office. Marine Le Pen is experiencing something similar since Eric Zemmour's emergence as a presidential candidate. She is no longer Public Enemy No. 1 since her detractors turned their fire on Zemmour; where once their battle-cry before any election was 'Anyone but Le Pen', now it's 'Anyone but Zemmour' Le Pen is doing her best to exploit the situation.

Zemmour’s campaign launch painted a dark vision of France

So it's official: Eric Zemmour will stand as a candidate in next year's French presidential election. It was hardly a shock when he launched his campaign this morning with a video that was the visual equivalent of a Michel Houellebecq novel. Nearly seven years ago, Houellebecq's novel, Submission, depicted an incipient civil war in France as the 2022 election approached. Zemmour believes that fiction is now a reality. It seems that whether or not people agree, there is widespread interest in Zemmour's message: in the three hours since he launched the video on YouTube, it's been viewed 430,000 times. France is going to pot, was the gist of his ten minute address, and unless I'm elected president forget about a rosy future.

Will the EU condemn the Rotterdam police shootings?

Last month on Coffee House I drew attention to the inconsistency in how Europe responded to the migrant crises in Belarus and France. Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, was accused of ‘weaponising’ Middle Eastern migrants seeking to enter Europe at his country's border with Poland, but no government dared criticise France for the chaos in Calais. There is similar hypocrisy in how the EU has reacted to Dutch police firing live bullets at protesters in Rotterdam. Last Friday three people venting their anger at the fresh Covid restrictions imposed by the Dutch government were wounded by what a police spokesperson referred to as ‘warning shots’. Shouldn’t warning shots have been fired over protesters’ heads and not into their bodies? As disturbing as the reports were of the shooting, equally shocking has been the silence from the EU and the United Nations.

Why a love child might help ‘Papa Zemmour’

It’s not often you find Eric Zemmour plastered across the front of Closer magazine. Brigitte Macron, Beyonce and Lady Gaga are the preferred darlings of the celebrity magazine. But this week’s issue – which is selling like gâteaux chaud in France – has on its cover Zemmour and his 28-year-old paramour Sarah Knafo and underneath what can only be described as a bombshell: ‘He’s going to be a dad in 2022!’ There are more photos on pages 12 and 13, including a close-up of Madame Knafo’s alleged bump as she and her beau, 35 years her senior, stroll through a Parisian park. The cynic might wonder if these photos are all very convenient. The pair are walking towards the camera at one moment and then they rest on a bench, whispering sweet nothings into each other’s ears.

The Channel deaths were a tragedy waiting to happen

Yesterday’s tragedy in the Channel has been ten years in the making. The British tabloids this morning are inevitably pointing the finger at the French for the deaths of 27 migrants who drowned after their dinghy sank not far from Calais, but that lets off the hook those who ultimately bear responsibility for the migrant crisis that afflicts Europe from Sweden to Sicily. One of those responsible is Angela Merkel, who is preparing to hand over the Chancellery to the insipid Olaf Scholz. Six and a half years ago she took the unilateral decision to open Europe’s borders to more than a million migrants and refugees. ‘We can do this!’ she declared. In an interview earlier this month Merkel claimed she had been vindicated.

Who is – and isn’t – welcome in Sadiq Khan’s London?

Right-wing Frenchman Eric Zemmour, who is expected to run for the presidency of his country next year, has been designated persona non grata in London by the city's mayor. 'Nobody who wants to divide our communities or incites hatred against people because of the colour of their skin or the god they worship is welcome in our city,' said Sadiq Khan in response to a question about Zemmour's presence in the capital. A noble declaration, one with which few would disagree, but rather incongruous coming from the mouth of Khan. For this is the man who waxed lyrical about Jeremy Corbyn at the Labour party conference in 2017. 'We made huge progress in the general election and the credit for that goes to one person – the leader of our party - Jeremy Corbyn,' he gushed.

How Britain and France learned to live with terror

Emmanuel Macron told his people last summer they would have to learn to live with Covid. A year-and-a-half on, France is unrecognisable to the country it once was: Covid passports are in force and face masks remain mandatory in many places. The president of France is not alone among Western leaders in his uncompromising approach to the pandemic: Holland, Austria and Germany are re-imposing restrictions and Boris Johnson, who used the 'learn to live with it' line in July, has refused to rule out a Christmas lockdown. Yet while Europe's presidents and prime ministers appear ready to go to any length to protect their people from this virus, their approach to another threat – the danger posed by Islamist terrorism – is far more insouciant.

France is using migrants just like Belarus

It was hard not to laugh, coldly, at the statement from western members of the UN Security Council that condemned Belarus for engineering the migrant crisis on its border with Poland. Following Thursday’s emergency UN Security Council meeting, western members published a joint statement, accusing Belarus of putting migrants’ lives in danger ‘for political purposes’. That's true, of course, but to hear such words from France. Quelle hypocrisie! There are far fewer migrants camping out in cardboard cities in Paris this year. Why? Because these camps have been broken up and the migrants – overwhelmingly young men from Africa and the Middle East – have headed north to Calais. Once there it's only a short voyage across the Channel to England, a voyage that 24,000 have made this year, nearly treble the number that succeeded in making the crossing in 2020.

A troubling tide of anti-Semitism is sweeping Britain and France

A day after the Israeli ambassador to Britain, Tzipi Hotovely, was harassed as she left the London School of Economics, a murder trial in France reached its grisly conclusion. Yacine Mihoub was handed a life term after being convicted of stabbing 85-year-old Mireille Knoll multiple times and then setting her body alight in March 2018. The elderly woman, a Holocaust survivor, had known Mihoub since he was a boy, but he still snuffed out her life because she was a Jew. An accomplice claimed Mihoub screamed 'Allahu Akbar' as he stabbed Knoll. It was a murder almost identical in nature to that of Sarah Halimi, slain in the same arrondissement of Paris a year earlier. Her assailant also shouted 'Allahu Akbar' as he took the life of the retired Jewish doctor.

Why is Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party trying to disarm the police?

A French police officer was attacked with a knife in Cannes this morning. The victim – whose bullet-proof vest saved him from serious injury – was at the wheel of his stationary car when the assailant opened his door and plunged the weapon into his body. There are reports that the attacker uttered the words 'in the name of the Prophet'. The man was 'neutralised' by another policeman and is now in a serious condition in hospital. As the attack unfolded, left-wing MP, Mathilde Panot, appeared on a popular morning radio show and was asked about her party's controversial stance on giving weapons to police officers. Panot is a member of La France Insoumise (LFI), the party led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, which, in the 2017 presidential election, exceeded expectations in winning a 19.

Fishing for votes: what’s really behind our trade war with France?

A decade ago, French-bashing was all the rage. David Cameron famously declared Britain would ‘roll out the red carpet’ for those fleeing the steep tax hikes proposed by the newly elected Socialist president François Hollande. The French economy continued to be a source of derision for the British, culminating in the managing director of John Lewis describing it as ‘sclerotic, hopeless and downbeat’ in October 2014. The following month, Hollande despatched his 37-year-old English-speaking economy minister to London with instructions to prove to the British that the French economy was in good health. That minister was Emmanuel Macron. ‘Whether we like it or not, the Anglo-Saxon press are the opinion-formers in Europe,’ he told the travelling French press corps.

France must ensure the safety of Eric Zemmour

There are several similarities between Eric Zemmour and the Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, and one distinct difference. The Dutchman was homosexual and an ardent campaigner for gay rights, whereas the Frenchman, who has three children, recently reaffirmed his opposition to gay marriage. But on Islam and immigration they had much in common. Fortuyn, for example, campaigned for a reduction in the overall annual number of immigrants to Holland from 40,000 to 10,000, with not one Muslim among that figure. Zemmour wants an end to all immigration and believes that Islam ‘is not compatible with France’. Fortuyn paid with his life for his views. He was assassinated on May 6, 2002, nine days before the Dutch parliamentary elections.

Zemmour’s xenophobia

The received opinion is that Islam and immigration are Éric Zemmour's prime targets as his putative presidential campaign gathers pace. But he has a third mortal enemy, and that's the Anglophone world. Éric doesn't much like us. But then Éric doesn't much like anyone who's not, as his sort are wont to say, Français de souche. Zemmour's rabble-rousing is becoming tiresome. He is lashing out in all directions, his latest act of belligerence a swipe at Britain and America during a rally in Rouen on Friday. The English, he thundered, have been France's 'greatest enemies for a thousand years' while D-Day 'was an enterprise of liberation but also of occupation and colonisation by the Americans'. In contrast, Zemmour has a soft spot for Russia and believes France should cultivate a far closer relationship with Moscow in order to counter the Anglo-American influence.

The idiotic myth of the ‘lone wolf’ attack

In the summer of 2020 the French Senate published a report on the ‘Development of Islamist Radicalisation and the means of combatting it.’ It was a wide-ranging review which included contributions from academics, writers, Muslim associations and politicians. Among those interviewed by the commission were the ex-security advisor Alexandre del Valle, Zineb El Rhazoui, a former columnist for Charlie Hebdo and Hugo Micheron, a doctor in political science, and the author of a 2020 book entitled The French Jihadism. The French Jihadism should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the nature of the threat posed by Islamic extremism – not just in France but across the West. Micheron interviewed 80 jihadists serving time for terror offences in French prisons.

Macron’s Brexit obsession leaves him blind to France’s real adversary

Emmanuel Macron's Europe minister Clément Beaune is fast gaining a reputation for bashing all things British. 'Stop telling us you do not need us anymore, stop being obsessed with us, stop believing we will solve your problems,' he raged recently. 'They made a mess of Brexit. It’s their choice and their failure, not ours.' Beaune's boss has much the same mindset: five years after Brexit, Macron is still in a sulk. 'The Brexit campaign was made up of lies, exaggerations and simplifications,' he told France in a New Year's address last year. 'We must remember at every moment what lies can lead to in our democracies.' This from the president who, in July, broke a solemn vow to his people that he would not introduce vaccine passports.

France’s political elite created Eric Zemmour

Love him or loathe him, Eric Zemmour is a breath of fresh air in French politics. Before he appeared as a contender it was the usual worn-out figures lining up for next year’s presidential election: Marine Le Pen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Xavier Bertrand, Valérie Pécresse and Arnaud Montebourg. None of them have anything new to say and, even if they did, the electorate have stopped listening. Same old same old. Zemmour, on the other hand, despite the fact he has yet to declare his candidacy, makes for compelling TV. He was at it again on Wednesday evening, this time calling gender conversion therapy ‘criminal’ and comparing its medical facilitators in the USA to the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. The presenter nearly fell off her chair.

Macron’s selective defence of free speech

In the early years of his presidency, Emmanuel Macron became known as Monsieur 'En Meme Temps'. The president of France was in the habit of setting out one vision but, 'at the same time', presenting an alternative point of view. He acquired the reputation of a man who was ideologically elusive. What does he stand for? Neither left, neither right, was his campaign slogan in 2017, and four years on he continues to flummox the French. Nowhere is this equivocation more apparent that in Macron's attitude to free speech. Twelve months ago, the French teacher Samuel Paty was brutally slain outside his school because he had shown a caricature of the prophet during a class discussion about freedom of expression. In the weeks that followed, Macron spoke with forceful eloquence about his determination to defend French values.

Is this the real reason Macron dislikes Brexit?

As I read The Wet Flanders Plain by Henry Williamson, a veteran of the first world war who encountered hostility from locals when he returned to the western front in 1927, a thought struck me: have I stumbled upon the source of Emmanuel Macron's Anglophobia? Let's not beat around the bush; the president of France does not like us. Politicians and diplomats may gainsay, and claim that Macron has the greatest respect for the United Kingdom. But his behaviour during the last four and a half years indicates that the current resident of the Elysée is the most Anglophobic president since Charles de Gaulle. Throughout the Brexit negotiations Macron was the most intransigent of the EU leaders, and following Britain's departure he has been the most embittered.

The Bataclan trial is forcing France to confront some difficult questions

It's a stroke of good fortune for France that Salah Abdeslam is a coward. Had he not been he would have died with the other nine members of the Islamist terror cell (one of whom was his brother) when they attacked Paris on the evening of 13 November 2015. Instead of detonating his suicide vest, Abdeslam dumped it in a dustbin and then called a friend in Belgium and asked to be collected. He spent the next four months hiding in a suburb of Brussels before police tracked him down. It's rare for a potential suicide bomber to be taken alive. In most cases all we have to judge them by is a theatrical video message filmed shortly before their death. The capture of Abdeslam therefore has been a boon. The trial is now in its third week and is expected to last until May.

Should we listen to Shamima Begum’s verdict on the hijab?

What should one make of Shamima Begum's appearance on Good Morning Britain? The London schoolgirl left the UK in 2015 to join Isis in Syria, but it appears she's converted to common sense in recent times. Dressed in a sleeveless top and a baseball cap, Begum made a number of frank admissions, including how she 'felt very constricted in the hijab. I felt like I was not myself.' The cynic will suggest it is an act in an attempt to be allowed back to Britain. Perhaps. Or maybe we should give Begum the benefit of the doubt. She was young and naive at the time. Now she understands how an enforced dress code demeans women – a reality that woman in Afghanistan are now living through. It takes a brave woman who is willing to speak out against the Taliban's demands that female students wear hijabs.

Are British spooks complacent about the next terror threat?

Unless you’re a dog lover the news from Afghanistan has been unceasingly bleak over the course of the last month. But one story this week should give Britons particular cause for concern. The Daily Telegraph reports that senior British intelligence officials have ‘held secret talks’ with the Taliban in Kabul. Apparently the spooks have sought assurances from the new rulers of Afghanistan that the country won’t be used to launch terrorist attacks on Britain. Assuming that this time MI6 were talking to genuine Taliban – and not an imposter, as was the case in 2010 when they were duped by a Pakistani shopkeeper pretending to be a senior figure in the organisation – one fears that British intelligence will again under-estimate their enemy.

France is nervous about welcoming a wave of Afghan refugees

Emmanuel Macron has once more infuriated many in France, but this time it has nothing to do with Covid passports or mandatory vaccination. In an address to the nation this week, the president discussed the disturbing scenes from Kabul as the Taliban invaded the capital of Afghanistan. France, he said, would be a haven for those Afghans 'who share our values' but nevertheless the country must 'anticipate and protect ourselves against significant irregular migratory flows that would endanger the migrants and risk encouraging trafficking of all kinds.' His rhetoric went down badly with much of the French left. 'Sordid' was how two MPs of La France Insoumise summed up the president's speech, while the Green MEP, Yannick Jadot (a candidate in next year's presidential election) tweeted that he was 'aghast' to hear Macron describe those fleeing the Taliban as irregular migrants rather than the victims they were.

Macron’s Covid passports are causing intergenerational warfare

The protest movement against Emmanuel Macron’s Covid passport, which comes into full effect today, continues to grow in France. On Saturday over 200,000 men, women and children took to the streets, more than twice the number that demonstrated when the protests began on July 17. As a veteran of the Paris protests, I’ve found one of the most interesting aspects to be the reactions of passers-by as the cortège files through the streets of the capital. Some clap, some look on in contempt, others shout words of encouragement and a few hurl terms of abuse. There’s no doubt the Covid passport has divided the people, and while the protest movement may be diverse, encompassing all colours, classes and ages (although I would estimate the average age of the protestor to be in their 30s) there is more uniformity on the other side of the argument.

A word of warning for Brits flocking to France

So as of Sunday Britons will flock to France in their 'tens of thousands'. That is what is being reported this morning after the government's announcement that double-jabbed tourists returning from France will no longer have to quarantine. The Daily Mail, playing the party pooper, tempered the good news with a warning that Brits may have trouble finding accommodation with 'a particular shortage of gîtes and hotel rooms in the south of the country'. Having visited the Pyrenees and Lake Annecy in recent weeks I can confirm that the popular destinations are chock-a-block with French, Germans, Dutch, Scandinavians and Belgians. Imagine how I felt, watching the final of the European Championships, in the bar of a French campsite.

Macron’s vaccine passport is uniting French anti-fascists and nationalists

Saturday was what is known in France as the Chassé-croisé, the busiest day of the year on the roads, when those who took their holidays in July return home and those who chose August depart. By lunchtime there were 625 miles of traffic jams on the roads. The thoroughfares of many cities were also blocked, but for another reason. For the third consecutive Saturday, thousands of people marched to protest against the introduction of the government's Covid passport. Almost a quarter of a million people took to the streets in 180 demonstrations, according to the government. These numbers are disputed by the organisers, who claim they are wildly conservative. But whatever the exact figure, it was a phenomenal number of demonstrators for the final weekend of July.

The French are rebelling against Macron’s Covid Passports

A manager of an attraction park in France was reportedly assaulted on Sunday after he denied entry to a customer. It's alleged the man lost his rag when he was turned back because he didn't have a valid Covid passport. It is unlikely to be the last such incident. In the space of a fortnight, the atmosphere in France has turned toxic. A hospital in Saint-Étienne was invaded on Monday by 60 demonstrators, mainly medical professionals, opposed to the measure that will force them to vaccinate or be suspended without pay. That is also a strike at a Lyon hospital that will start tomorrow. Elsewhere cinemas, theme parks and fitness centres have been labelled 'collaborators' for their participation in the government's Covid Passport scheme.

Emmanuel Macron’s dangerous infantilisation of the French

From St Tropez to La Rochelle to Deauville, there is a familiar sight this summer in many of France’s most popular coastal resorts. A year after the wearing of masks outside was made mandatory they are back, and French and foreign sunseekers are forced to muzzle under a broiling sun. It was only a month ago that the government relaxed the rule on the wearing of masks outdoors, but that was before a rise in cases caused by the Delta variant. Most of the infected are the young and unvaccinated, hospitalisations are stable and deaths remain minimal: there were 11 in the last 24 hours, compared to ten last Saturday. These facts were overlooked by the health minister, Olivier Véran, who earlier this week announced in Hancockesque tones that France is in the grip of a ‘grave’ fourth wave.

Macron’s vaccine passports are a betrayal of French values

What a celebration of diversity I witnessed in Paris on Saturday as tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through the capital. Organisers put the figure at 50,000, the government at 18,000; I'd say the former is the more accurate estimation. It took two hours to walk the one and three-quarter miles between the start of the march, in the Place du Palais Royal, to its terminus at the Place Pierre Laroque outside the Ministry of Health. In total, and again depending on your source, between 114,000 and 150,000 people demonstrated across France on Saturday to protest against the planned introduction of the 'Pass Sanitaire', France’s vaccine passport. All ages, sexes, classes and colours were represented. I saw young women in hijabs and others in shorts and singlets; young black men in sports shirts walked alongside elderly white men in checked shirts.

Le Pen is just another establishment politician

One Saturday in March, I attended an anti-lockdown rally in central Paris. I was there partly out of journalistic curiosity but also out of solidarity with those Frenchmen and women who believed it was high time life returned to normal. What struck me was the similarity between the protestors and those I had walked with in 2018 in the early weeks of the yellow vest movement in Paris — overwhelmingly middle-aged blue-collar workers. The yellow vests famously had no leader because it was a protest movement that arose not out of any strong political conviction but from what the French call ras-le-bol: despair at what was perceived as an arrogant and out-of-touch political class who seemed intent on punishing the poorest in society.

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