Presidential Candidate Zemmour Under Fire For Linking Migrants and Crime

French far-right party Reconquete! presidential candidate Eric Zemmour delivers a speech d
BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty Images
Chris Tomlinson

French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour has come under fire after stating that reducing immigration to zero would decrease levels of crime, stating most criminals were migrants or from migrant backgrounds.

The “anti-hate” association SOS Racisme has stated they will file a police complaint against the conservative writer and television pundit over his remarks this week during a television interview on the programme Public Senat.

Zemmour claimed that “There will be almost no more [delinquency]” in France if immigration levels are reduced to zero and when asked by the interviewer if only immigrants were delinquents, Zemmour replied, “Yes. In any case, immigrants or children of immigrants,” Franceinfo reports.

He then added, “Go to French prisons and you will see!” and claimed, adding: “In Japan, there is no immigration, the prisons are almost empty.”

Last year, it was reported that underage migrants in French prisons were causing havoc and violence, although some prison guards claimed that most of the migrants were likely adults lying about their ages.

Dominique Sopo, president of SOS Racisme, took to Twitter to announce he would be filing a legal complaint against Zemmour saying, “Sentenced for similar remarks in 2011, he will again have to deal with justice following the complaint that SOS Racisme is filing today.”

“Clarification: there is no global correlation between the number of detainees & the weight of immigration,” Sopo added.

The complaint comes just days after Zemmour was convicted for hate speech over remarks made in 2020 about underage migrants and fined 10,000 euros (£8,360/$11,247) by a French court.

Zemmour had made his comments in September of 2020 on broadcaster CNews, labelling underage migrants thieves murderers and rapists. The conservative writer has been found guilty of hate speech several other times in the past as well.

While Zemmour saw a surge of support in French presidential polling in October, polling ahead of populist National Rally (RN) leader Marine Le Pen, his popularity in the polls has decreased in recent weeks.

An Elabe poll released this week put Zemmour at 11.5 per cent behind Le Pen at 16.5 per cent, conservative Les Republicains Valerie Pecresse at 17 per cent and current President Emmanuel Macron at 24 per cent.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com

 

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