Hard-Right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour said he was “culturally and intellectually” closest to Boris Johnson out of all world leaders as he likened himself to the British prime minister.
During an interview with France Inter, the journalist was given a list of names of “populist” leaders, and asked if he felt they were inspirations for him.
The interviewer listed former US president Donald Trump, Italy’s former prime minister Matteo Salvini and Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.
“You have not mentioned Boris Johnson,” Mr Zemmour responded. “I am astonished because he is without doubt the leader I feel I am closest to, culturally, intellectually … and he’s obviously a European like me but English,” Zemmour said.
Mr Zemmour, who has built his campaign on anti-immigration and anti-Islam rhetoric, went on to say his ideas didn’t fit with the international populist movement.
He defined populism as “the cry of the people who do not want to die. I am the candidate of the French people who do not want to die.”
Monday’s comments weren’t the first time Mr Zemmour has compared himself to the British PM. In an interview with Bloomberg in November he said: “I’m not upset that I’m compared to Donald Trump but it always makes me laugh because you should compare me to Boris Johnson. Just like me [Johnson] was a presidential candidate and wrote history books so I have far more intellectual affinities of Boris Johnson than Trump.”
He also noted in an interview with The Times that he and Mr Johnson were both former journalists who had published notable history books: “For him Churchill, for me the history of France, Napoleon and de Gaulle. “
Mr Zemmour, who has also twice been convicted of hate speech, is calling for “zero immigration” and has made claims that the country’s “traditional values” are being threatened by an “Islamic invasion.”
The latest poll still shows the incumbent president Emmanuel Macron as the current favourite to win April’s elections, taking 24 per cent in the first round. Meanwhile the centre-right candidate Valérie Pécresse is polling at 16 per cent. Mr Zemmour and the other far right candidate – National Rally leader Marine Le Pen – are tied at 14 per cent.
