Éric Zemmour

Born

1958-08-31

Birthplace

Montreuil, Seine [now Seine-Saint-Denis], France

Biography

Éric Justin Léon Zemmour (born 31 August 1958) is a French essayist, political journalist and writer. His flamboyant conservative positions, as well as the numerous controversies he has been involved in, are notorious in his homeland. With the publication of The French Suicide (French: Le Suicide français), a book for which he was awarded the 2015 Prix Combourg-Chateaubriand, he gained international recognition. He also received the 2011 Prix Richelieu for the whole of his career as a journalist. Born in Montreuil, Zemmour studied at Sciences Po. He was hired by Le Quotidien de Paris in 1986 before becoming a reporter for Le Figaro in 1996. Since 2009, he has had a column in Le Figaro Magazine. Zemmour has appeared as a television personality on shows such as On n'est pas couché on France 2 (2006–2011), Ça se dispute on I-Télé (2003–2014) and Face à l'Info on CNews (since 2019). He has also appeared on Zemmour et Naulleau since 2011, a weekly evening talk show hosted by Anaïs Bouton on Paris Première, together with literary critic Éric Naulleau. Zemmour worked in parallel for RTL from 2010 until 2019, first hosting the radio show Z comme Zemmour, prior to joining Yves Calvi's morning news show as an analyst. Zemmour has been extensively discussed in news media as a possible anti-establishment candidate in the 2022 presidential election. He remains publicly undecided about a run for office.