During the 2022 French presidential election, Thaïs d’Escufon stated her support for Éric Zemmour from the first round. Her choice was primarily based on the closeness she perceived between the Reconquête candidate’s proposals and her own positions on immigration, national identity, Islamism and security.
However, her argument went beyond a first-round vote. She also presented this candidacy as a means of shifting the political debate to the right and building a lasting opposition force, including in the event that Éric Zemmour did not win the election.
Support based on immigration proposals
The first reason she gave concerned immigration policy. Thaïs d’Escufon believed that Éric Zemmour had the toughest programme on this issue among right-wing candidates. In particular, she highlighted his intention to abolish family reunification, which she described as the main driver of legal immigration in France.
She also cited several measures advocated by the candidate: abolishing state medical aid, ending birthright citizenship, removing people residing in the country illegally, deporting dual-national offenders, and closing mosques described as Islamist.
In this context, she used the term “remigration,” meaning a policy of return or removal for foreign nationals living in France. Éric Zemmour himself had proposed creating a ministry dedicated to this policy. This notion, which is highly controversial in public debate, was central to his stance on immigration.
Thaïs d’Escufon believed that the candidate openly embraced policies that other right-wing political figures would not dare to defend. She considered that some of his measures could be seen as insufficient while still regarding him as the most radical candidate on these issues during that campaign.
French identity and the denunciation of a cultural risk
Thaïs d’Escufon’s support was rooted in an identitarian view of French politics. She argued that Éric Zemmour explicitly defended French identity and that, before entering the campaign, he had publicly addressed immigration and demographic issues for many years as a journalist and writer.
She attributed to him a willingness to name directly what she perceived as a threat to France’s cultural continuity. Her reasoning referred in particular to the expression “Great Replacement,” a contested political theory and phrase that she considered central to analysing the country’s demographic and migration trends.
She argued that the unapologetic use of terms regarded as radical could help shift the boundaries of political debate. To support this idea, she invoked the principle of the Overton window: according to this theory, making a proposal open to public discussion can eventually make it appear politically conceivable.
In this regard, she cited figures suggesting that a significant share of French people supported the remigration measures proposed by Éric Zemmour in 2022, with a higher level of support among Les Républicains sympathisers. These data were used to support the idea that proposals initially seen as marginal had gained visibility.
Women’s safety as a personal and political argument
Thaïs d’Escufon also linked her support for Éric Zemmour to the issue of women’s safety. She referred to insecurity on public transport and in public spaces, as well as sexual assaults, which she connected to her concerns about immigration and crime.
She stated that, in the December before the election, she had been the victim of unlawful confinement and an attempted rape at her home. She said that the alleged perpetrator was a Tunisian migrant and remained free, citing overcrowded prisons and overstretched police services. Drawing on this experience, she said she had greater confidence in Éric Zemmour than in his rivals to implement a policy aimed at protecting women.
This issue formed an important part of her discourse: security was not presented merely as an institutional matter, but as a daily reality that, in her view, required firmer responses from the state.
Why she rejected Marine Le Pen
Thaïs d’Escufon also explained her refusal to support Marine Le Pen, then the National Rally candidate. She believed that the RN leader could no longer be described as an identitarian candidate, notably because Marine Le Pen had distanced herself from the notion of the “Great Replacement” and from the concept of remigration.
She also criticised the National Rally for abandoning certain demands, such as abolishing dual nationality, and for not going far enough on family reunification. In her view, the RN’s proposed immigration measures remained vague or too limited.
Her disagreement was also organisational. She said that she had worked as a community manager for Sébastien Chenu, the RN official in northern France, between September 2020 and January 2021. She stated that she lost this job after appearing on television as a spokesperson for Génération Identitaire, a movement with which she was associated. She interpreted this episode as evidence of the RN’s desire to sideline highly visible identitarian activists.
From an electoral perspective, she believed that the RN was pursuing a strategy of moderation and normalisation that she called “Chiracisation.” In her view, this approach would allow the party to retain an electoral audience without creating the conditions for a political break or genuine access to power.
Reconquête as a tool for reshaping the right
Beyond the presidential election itself, Thaïs d’Escufon saw Reconquête as an opportunity to reshape the right. She considered Les Républicains to be divided between a centrist wing likely to move closer to Emmanuel Macron and a more populist wing that was reluctant to ally with the National Rally.
She described the RN as being durably isolated in terms of alliances. In this reading, Reconquête could attract voters and activists from several strands of the right in order to form a distinct populist and identitarian bloc, capable of exerting influence even without an immediate presidential victory.
She therefore stressed that politics cannot be reduced to elections. In her view, a candidacy can affect the issues discussed, the vocabulary used, activist organisation and the balance of power between parties, even in defeat.
A call for activist involvement
Finally, Thaïs d’Escufon advocated an activist approach to political action. She believed that voting was not enough and called on people who shared her convictions to become directly involved: joining Reconquête, taking part in leaflet distribution or poster campaigns, joining Génération Zemmour or, for students, La Cocarde branches.
Her support for Éric Zemmour was thus based, in her view, on a coherent set of ideas: immigration proposals considered tougher, an asserted defence of French identity, a priority placed on security and a desire to build an organised identitarian right. These positions reflected her political assessment and formed part of the particularly polarised debates of the 2022 presidential campaign.
Frequently asked questions
Why did Thaïs d’Escufon prefer Éric Zemmour to Marine Le Pen?
She believed that Éric Zemmour took more explicit positions on immigration, remigration and national identity. She criticised the National Rally for its strategy of moderation and for moving away from identitarian activists.
Which Éric Zemmour measures did she highlight?
She cited, among other measures, the abolition of family reunification and state medical aid, the end of birthright citizenship, the removal of foreign nationals residing illegally in the country, the deportation of dual-national offenders and the closure of mosques described as Islamist.
What role did she assign to Reconquête?
She saw Reconquête as a tool for restructuring the right, capable of bringing together identitarian and populist currents beyond the 2022 presidential election alone.
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