After weeks of running neck-and-neck, vetran far-right leader Marine Le Pen has surged ahead of her rival Eric Zemmour. The far-right former TV pundit Zemmour is trying to revive his campaign by toughening, again, his rhetoric.

After weeks of running neck-and-neck, veteran French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has surged ahead of her rival Eric Zemmour. The far-right former TV pundit is trying to revive his campaign by toughening his rhetoric once more.

French presidential candidates Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour are holding duelling rallies on February 5, 2022. FRANCE 24's Clovis Casali reports.

To justify Russia's war on Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has described the Ukrainian government as Nazis. Not only is the claim totally unfounded, but President Volodymyr Zelensky is himself Jewish and some of his relatives were murdered by the Nazis. Though experts have almost unanimously dismissed the Kremlin's claim, there are real concerns that the war could strengthen neo-Nazi groups both in Russia and Ukraine. Adrien Nonjon, an expert on Ukraine and the far right, joined us for Perspective to tell us more.

we take a closer look at the so-called Freedom Convoys, which have spread from Canada to New Zealand to Europe. Our guest is Ciaran O'Connor, an analyst with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. He specialises in the use of open-source research to track and monitor disinformation and online extremism. "At home [in Canada] and abroad, there's been widespread support across the right-wing extremist spectrum for the Convoy," he told FRANCE 24.

As France's April presidential election approaches, the campaign is getting under way in earnest. In this edition of our new show, we focus on the French Communist Party attempting a political comeback and discuss at length the battle raging between Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen for leadership of the French far right.

We look at French papers' reactions to members of Marine Le Pen's party joining far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, as well as the website Mediapart's analysis of 1,000 of his earliest supporters. We also discuss coverage of the ongoing crisis between Russia and Ukraine and how some papers are explaining Germany’s decision to veto sending support to Kiev. We end with reaction to the death of French fashion icon and designer Thierry Mugler.

Eric Zemmour, who plans to run for president in April, has been fined for remarks about young migrants made in 2020. He accused the youngsters universally of being "thieves, killers and rapists."

Anti-racism campaigners were physically attacked and far-right Eric Zemmour put in a headlock as the presidential candidate's campaign got underway.

French far-right pundit Eric Zemmour has officially launched his bid for president with a 10-minute video clip on YouTube that looks like a crash course on replacement theory – immigrants supposedly taking over, violently – all to the dramatic sound of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. We ask our panel about the unorthodox campaign launch.

A 53-year-old is charged with incitement to racial hatred, impersonating an officer, and posessing child sexual abuse images. He signed his messages "NSU 2.0" after the infamous terror group.

Marine Le Pen heavily criticized the European Union during her visit with the Hungarian prime minister in Budapest. Viktor Orban praised Le Pen and said she would help renew Europe's political right wing.