Reconquête (, ), stylised as Reconquête! (often shortened as R!), is a
far-right
Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...
in
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, who has since served as its leader. He was a candidate in the 2022 presidential election, in which he placed fourth with just over 7% of the vote as the best newcomer.
History
Background
From September 2021,
opinion polling
An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll, is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of que ...
for the 2022 presidential election showed a sharp rise in favour of far-right journalist and author Éric Zemmour in the months before he formally became a candidate. A series of opinion polls suggested that Zemmour might reach the presidential election's
second round
The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Un ...
. Although there had been speculation about a possible run for the presidential nomination of The Republicans in the party's 2021 congress, Zemmour opted to put his name forward as the nominee of a new party.
Launch
Éric Zemmour formally announced his candidacy for the presidency on 30 November 2021 through a video posted on
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
. It was seen by over 2.6 million viewers in three days.
Reconquête was launched on 5 December 2021; at the founding rally held in
Villepinte, Seine-Saint-Denis
Villepinte () is a Communes of France, commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. It is near the Charles de Gaulle Airport. The Parc des Expositions de Villepinte is located i ...
, Zemmour proposed a "reconquest of the greatest country in the world" in front of 15,000 people. The party's name is direct reference to the Spanish ''
Reconquista
The ''Reconquista'' (Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese for ) or the fall of al-Andalus was a series of military and cultural campaigns that European Christian Reconquista#Northern Christian realms, kingdoms waged ag ...
''. Zemmour and Reconquête's campaign directors for the upcoming elections were announced as
Court of Audit
A Court of Audit or Court of Accounts is a supreme audit institution, i.e. a government institution performing financial and/or legal audit (i.e. statutory audit or external audit) on the executive branch of power.
See also
*Most of those ...
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...
in
2017
2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly.
Events January
* January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...
candidate, was the first MP to support Zemmour. Former presidential candidate
Philippe de Villiers
Philippe Marie Jean Joseph Le Jolis de Villiers de Saintignon, known as Philippe de Villiers (; born 25 March 1949), is a French entrepreneur, politician and novelist.Guillaume Peltier, previously elected as a member of The Republicans, as well as two
Members of the European Parliament
A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Comm ...
National Rally
The National Rally (, , RN), known as the National Front from 1972 to 2018 (, , FN), is a French far-right politics, far-right political party, described as right-wing populist and French nationalism, nationalist. It is the single largest Nat ...
defected to the party. Rivière had presided over the French delegation to the
Identity and Democracy
Identity and Democracy (ID; ) was a political group of the European Parliament during the Ninth European Parliament term, launched on 13 June 2019. It comprised Far right politics, far-right, Right-wing populism, right-wing populist, Euroscept ...
became the second Senator in March 2022. In May 2022 Myriane Houplain became the partys second MP.
Other notable people who have been involved around Zemmour's candidacy include former MPs
Paul-Marie Coûteaux
Paul-Marie Coûteaux (born 31 July 1956, in Paris) is a French politician and author. He served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2009 for the Movement for France, and a member of Via since 2018
Early life
Paul-Marie Coûtea ...
In February 2022, a reporter embedded into the Zemmour campaign's online division discovered and reported on a covert online campaign targeting Facebook and Wikipedia. A "shadow army" was delegated to join a huge number of Facebook groups and post pro-Zemmour content to raise the candidate's profile as much as possible. Another group of the shadow online team is a task force called "WikiZedia" which is tasked with editing pages on Wikipedia, in particular the French article about Zemmour, which is the top viewed article on
French Wikipedia
The French Wikipedia () is the French-language edition of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. This edition was started on 23 March 2001, two months after the official creation of Wikipedia. It has :fr:Special:Statistics, encyclopedia artic ...
. "WikiZedia" members are charged with promoting Zemmour's page and linking to it as much as possible at the online encyclopedia. A veteran editor of French Wikipedia who was one of its top contributors was identified as being part of the Zemmour shadow team, described as being "in charge of the Zemmour page on Wikipedia" and was blocked from editing by Wikipedia administrators, along with six other editors. As soon as they learned of the affair,
Wikimedia France
Wikimedia chapters are national or sub-national not-for-profit organizations created to promote the interests of Wikimedia projects locally, by members of the movement. Chapters are legally independent of the Wikimedia Foundation, entering into ...
immediately alerted the French media online watchdog agency ARCOM, which tracks online piracy and manipulation of digital communications.
2024 elections
The party won five seats in the
2024 European Parliament election in France
The 2024 European Parliament elections in France were held on 9 June 2024, as part of the 2024 European Parliament election.
Background
The Borne government lost its majority in the 2022 French legislative election.
Electoral system
A bill ...
2024 French legislative election
Legislative elections in France, Legislative elections were held in France on 30 June and 7 July 2024 (and one day earlier for some voters outside of metropolitan France) to elect all 577 Deputy (France), members of the 17th legislature of th ...
, on 30 June 2024.
Ideology
Reconquête vows to bolster the French economy in line with what some observers have called a Colbertist approach. Reconquête promotes the Great Replacement conspiracy theory and the far-right remigration policy for the forced mass deportation of non-white immigrants from France. Its main campaign themes are
identity
Identity may refer to:
* Identity document
* Identity (philosophy)
* Identity (social science)
* Identity (mathematics)
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film
* ''Identity'' (2003 film), an ...
Islamisation
The spread of Islam spans almost 1,400 years. The early Muslim conquests that occurred following the death of Muhammad in 632 CE led to the creation of the caliphates, expanding over a vast geographical area; conversion to Islam was boosted ...
, security through new deportation legislation, an improvement in public instruction levels with a revision of the ''collège'' system, lower taxes for the least prosperous French people, as well as higher economic competitivity. Speaking at the founding rally, Zemmour promised to "slash immigration to almost zero", to deport people who unsuccessfully sought asylum and
illegal immigrants
Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of that country's immigration laws, or the continuous residence in a country without the legal right to do so. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upward, wi ...
, as well as to remove France from
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
's integrated command.
In terms of
economic policy
''Economic Policy'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Oxford University Press, Oxford Academic on behalf of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, the Center for Economic Studies (University of Munich), and the Paris Scho ...
, Reconquête seeks to implement a "country-score" () which would clearly indicate to the consumer whether a product is French or not.
In
foreign policy
Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...
, the party seeks to strengthen French fiscal and political autonomy against the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
(EU). Zemmour has expressed support for
Brexit
Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU).
Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...
and the UK's vote to leave the EU, but argued that France's situation was different and that he would not seek to withdraw France from the EU. Instead, he has summed up his position as "I want France to be in Europe, but I want France to come first before Europe" and pledged to veto any further EU expansion plans. He has also stated the platform will include withdrawing France from EU immigration and asylum policies, ensuring the French tricolour is always displayed above the EU flag, putting French law above EU law and halting accession talks with Eastern European nations looking to join. Reconquête is also opposed to the
accession of Turkey to the European Union
Turkey is negotiating its accession to the European Union (EU) as a member state, following its application to become a full member of the European Economic Community (EEC), the predecessor of the EU, on 14 April 1987.
After the ten founding ...
. The party takes a pro-Israel stance, with Zemmour describing the
Gaza war
The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...
as the "fight of our civilisation", calling for a ban on
Hamas
The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...
's 'parent organisation', the
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...
, in France, and visiting Israel in solidarity. Reconquête seeks to ban the Muslim Brotherhood and linked organisations. The party also wants to place a ban on structures that seek to promote
Jihad
''Jihad'' (; ) is an Arabic word that means "exerting", "striving", or "struggling", particularly with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it encompasses almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with God in Islam, God ...
. It would like to put into practice a tighter control of imams and Islamic preachers in mosques and other Islamic sites in France, including tighter control of external funding for these places of worship and preachers.
The party supports banning the Islamic veil (hijab) in all public places.
Election results
Presidential
National Assembly
European Parliament
Organization
Leadership
Reconquête is led by Éric Zemmour from
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
Philippe de Villiers
Philippe Marie Jean Joseph Le Jolis de Villiers de Saintignon, known as Philippe de Villiers (; born 25 March 1949), is a French entrepreneur, politician and novelist.Sarah Knafo