CAN'T REPLACE THE FRENCH FAST ENOUGH (profanity alert):

Sex scandals, copyright breaches and aggressive confrontations with members of the public have seen the presidential campaign of Eric Zemmour--a controversial far-right pundit in France--begin with a whimper, not a bang.

In typically divisive fashion, the 63-year-old polemicist announced his long-expected candidature on Tuesday from a wooden desk with a vintage microphone above a soundtrack of Beethoven, alluding to Charles de Gaulle's famous call to the French people to join the resistance against the Nazis in 1940. "It is no longer time to reform France but to save it," said Zemmour, in a 10-minute YouTube video. "We must give back the power to the people, take it back from minorities that oppress the majority."

But political analysts told The Daily Beast that Zemmour, known for his outspoken anti-Islam, anti-immigrant views, has made several chaotic errors in the lead-up to his announcement--and that his decision to run in France's April 2022 elections could split the far-right vote, killing off their chance of power. [...]

Zemmour has thrived due to media coverage of his Donald Trump-style controversy, lambasting identity politics and propagating sexist, racist and homophobic rhetoric--as well as the Great Replacement theory, a conspiracy that claims the "indigenous" white European population is being demographically and culturally replaced by Muslims.

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