"I obviously condemn all violence" but "there are people who come to provoke. They know very well that they are going to piss off the people who are there, and they are doing it for that. For the media to say + wow there they are bad, the others are violent + ", affirmed on BFMTV and RMC the extreme right candidate for the presidential race.
"They had nothing to do there," he added, describing SOS Racisme activists as "truffle hounds of subsidies" and asking the media "to stop being complacent relays for these provocateurs" .
Eric Zemmour's first campaign rally was marked by several incidents including an attack on SOS activists who carried out an action that wanted to be "non-violent", by unveiling T-shirts to say "no to racism".
"There were members of the Zouaves Paris or former relatives of this group (of the ultra-right, editor's note) among the aggressors," SOS Racisme president Dominique Sopo told AFP on Monday, while about fifty of people identified by the police as belonging to the Zouaves left the meeting chanting: "we are at home".
These incidents as well as the clash of Eric Zemmour by an individual before his entry on the scene led to the opening of an investigation for "acts of violence", announced the public prosecutor of Bobigny on Monday.
Eric Zemmour has reported a wrist injury with 9 days of ITT.
SOS Racisme, she indicated that five people had been injured.
© 2021 AFP