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Rabat – Far-right French Politician and political pundit Eric Zemmour has received backlash for openly supporting Tunisia’s President Kais Saied’s “racist” speech that targeted sub-Saharan migrants after chairing a meeting of the National Security Council at the Carthage Palace.
Saeid was quoted on Tuesday as saying that increased sub-Saharan African immigration to Tunisia was due to a “criminal arrangement” that seeks to change the country’s demography as an “Arab and Islamic country.”
Zemmour applauded Saeid’s remarks in a Tweet, saying: “Tunisia wants to take urgent action to protect its people. What are we waiting for to fight this Great Replacement?”
Eric Zemmour’s Tweet.
Twitter users flooded the comment section under Zemmour’s controversial statement. One user compared him to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, writing: “A discourse of identity and xenophobia based on the simplism of scapegoat politics: ‘the foreigner is the cause of all the ills of society…’ Adolf Hitler did a similar thing.”
Fueling the Fire
However, the racist rhetoric also fueled more racist comments, with many arguing that it was Saeid’s right to express his desire to have “fewer black people” in his country.
Other critics have accused Zemmour of using Saied’s remarks to support his own “extremist theories.” The French conservative pundit and leader of Reconquest Party, is known for his attacks on Muslims and immigrant populations.
Over the years he has been one of the most prominent and vocal popularizers of the Great Replacement theory. First used by the French reactionary and white nationalist writer Renaud Camus in his eponymous 2011 novel, the theory is based on false ideologies that the European Christian population is being replaced by Muslims and Arabs.
The idea has been roundly denounced and debunked, with critics arguing that the proponents of the theory espouse damaging and conspiratorial rhetoric that spreads hate and fuels Islamophobic acts.
In addition to social media commenters, NGOs have joined the chorus condemning President Saied’s speech, saying such damaging language fuels the migrant crisis, news outlet the Middle East Monitor reported.
One activist fumed against the Tunisian president’s rhetoric on Twitter, saying: “Disgusting statement of #Tunisia’s presidency at a National Security Council meeting portraying post-2011 programs aimed at settling black African migrants in Tunisia as a conspiracy to make the country ‘a purely African country with no affiliation with the Arab and Islamic nations.’”
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