French presidential candidate says he is “not the Santa Claus of humankind.”
French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, who wants a complete halt on immigration, said he was “not the Santa Claus of humankind” when pressed on how many refugees France should take in, adding that he was “here to save the French people and France…not here to save the world.”
The firebrand intellectual made the comments during a debate aired by French broadcaster BMF-TV.
The host of the debate asked Zemmour what the criteria would be for migrants and refugees to be able to obtain asylum in France.
Zemmour responded by saying the migrant should make the appeal in his own country and that if he came to France before doing so, he should be arrested and deported.
He was then asked what type of person France should accept as an asylum seeker.
“Originally, the right of asylum is for freedom fighters like Victor Hugo, Solzhenitsyn, etc.,” he responded.
“That’s not a lot,” said the host.
“Exactly, we will stop there,” responded Zemmour.
The candidate then pointed to the example of Japan, which only accepts a relatively miniscule number of refugees on a year by year basis.
Zemmour said he would go back to 1950’s numbers, when France accepted only around 300 refugees a year.
The host then asked if Zemmour would take in persecuted Afghan women fleeing the Taliban.
“Afghan women are not freedom fighters, I do not accept them,” he responded, adding, “I am not the Santa Claus of humankind.”
“Individuals belong to peoples, they have histories, cultures, I am neither here to give moral lessons to 7 billion men, nor to welcome all the misery and all the misfortunes of the world – I close, it’s over,” said Zemmour.
The hosts then tried to trip up Zemmour by asking if he would allow a migrant who had saved a child from a burning building to stay in France, but the intellectual wasn’t having any of it.
“I have a duty of humanity to the French people, I have no duty of humanity towards the whole world,” said Zemmour.
“I am here to save the French people and France, I’m not here to save the world,” he added, warning that mass immigration was “changing the face of France” and that migrants were “colonizing” the country.
As we previously highlighted, in a bid to raise native birth rates, Zemmour said he wants to give parents in rural areas of the country 10,000 euros for each new child they have.
According to Zemmour, the goal is to “take back the countryside.”
Back in 2020, the intellectual said the illegal migration problem had become so chronic in some areas of France that it was time for the country’s notorious no-go zones to be “re-conquered by force.”
Zemmour’s political opponents, such as right-wing populist Marine Le Pen, have tried to smear him as an extremist. However, his sentiments are shared by a significant proportion of the French population.
A recent poll by Harris revealed that the majority of French people are concerned about “European, white and Christian populations being threatened with extinction” as a result of “Muslim immigration.”
One of the primary drivers for the native population’s resentment towards the political class is that they were never consulted on the topic of mass migration.
