PARIS, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Emmanuel Picot says he and two friends were beaten up one summer night in 2019 near the river Seine in central Paris by men of apparent African origin - an unprovoked attack that has hardened his political views, driving him further to the right.
The engineering student, now aged 23, says he suffered a broken knee cap and bruised face in the assault. He shows photos he said were taken after the incident of his black eye and his knee in a brace. Reuters could not verify his account.
Picot said the assault had left him convinced there was a strong link between immigration and street crime - a belief that has led him to back far-right candidate Eric Zemmour in the presidential election due in April.
Zemmour, 63, who holds convictions for inciting racial hate, says he wants to become president to save France from a decline that he blames on what he describes as uncontrolled immigration and on Islam.
"The assault ... pushed me towards a political camp that protects the French," Picot told Reuters on the embankment near Notre-Dame Cathedral where he says he and his two white friends were attacked.
Politics in France today, Picot said, was split between those "who are there to look after the French and ensure we can live serenely" and those inclined to say "we'll let everyone in because we're kind and sweet, whatever the risk".
Zemmour says the solution to street crime is not more police but fewer immigrants.
France does not publish data, including on crime, based on race or ethnicity. Political scientist Virginie Martin called Zemmour's rhetoric around immigration absurd.
"With Zemmour ... it's as if immigrants have street crime running through their veins, as if they can't stop themselves," said Martin.
"He points the finger at the LGBT community, he points a finger at women, at immigrants, at people whose colour of skin is not white, at people who aren't of Christian culture."
Right-wing politicians linking immigration and street crime cite justice ministry data showing a disproportionate number of foreigners in jail. Their opponents on the left and sociologists say any correlation is the result of social inequality.
UNITING THE RIGHT?
Picot, who grew up in the affluent Paris suburb of Sevres, the youngest of seven children to Catholic parents, said the conservative Les Republicains party had been his natural political home but that its presidential candidate, Valerie Pecresse, was too soft on immigration and crime.
Zemmour wants to unite the far right and voters like Picot who have traditionally voted for the mainstream right. Opinion polls put Zemmour behind President Emmanuel Macron, his main far-right challenger Marine Le Pen and Pecresse in the race for the Elysee.
Asked what the France he dreamed of looked like, Picot, who wears a cygnet ring bearing his family coat of arms, expressed nostalgia for an era his grandparents had described when streets were safe and people took pride in the country's history, including its darker moments.
Zemmour, a writer and broadcaster who is the son of Berber Jews from Algeria, has described immigration as "the mother of all battles". On the campaign trail he seeks to reach out to voters he says feel foreign in their own country.
In a debate with far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, Zemmour said he wanted to defend France's heritage.
"You are a racist," Melenchon retorted.
Picot said it was not Zemmour's rhetoric that was violent, but the reality of modern day France. He denied that his beliefs, and Zemmour's politics, were anti-diversity, calling them pro-France instead.
Their message to immigrants, he said, was clear: "You can live in France if you respect certain rules and if you accept certain conditions, in particular becoming French."
