trade treaties, and introduce import taxes on strategic products where France needs to defend its national interest, local production, and social model. Other topics Zemmour has called the French state a "bureaucratic hell" and advocates administrative simplification. He proposes the retirement age be raised to 64. He regrets France abolished the death penalty and has expressed philosophical views in favour of it. International relations Zemmour has argued for a distancing of France from the United States, a closer relationship with Russia, as well as an increased independence from the European Union and its foreign policy. He has stated that the Normandy landings during World War II had been a liberation, but also a "colonization", of France by the United States. Zemmour has also called for a strengthening of the French Armed Forces, arguing that the only influence that France has retained on the international scene was due to the strength of its armed forces and its nuclear defense capabilities. He supports a withdrawal from the NATO's integrated military command. Zemmour supported Brexit and Britain's vote to leave the European Union, describing the EU as a "pure technostructure that has got rid of the people," but has said that he would not seek to fully withdraw France from the EU if elected president, arguing that France's war record made it harder for the country to follow Britain's example. Instead, Zemmour has summed up his position as "I want France to be in Europe, but I want France to come before Europe," and pledged to withdraw France from the EU's immigration and asylum policies, put French law above EU law and halt accession talks with Eastern European countries aiming to join the bloc. In addition, Zemmour has expressed support for Rattachism, the integration of Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium, into France, pointing to a 2010 opinion poll in which 49 per cent of Walloons were ready for such a move. He described Belgium as having become largely a fiction, and likened its separation from France to that of East Germany from West Germany, calling it "France's GDR". Zemmour condemned Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine despite his previous pro-Russia stance. Electoral History 2022 French Presidential Election |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" ! colspan="2" rowspan="2"| Candidate ! rowspan="2" colspan="2"| Party ! colspan="2"| 1st round 10 April 2022 ! colspan="2"| 2nd round 24 April 2022 |- ! width="75"|Votes ! width="30"|% ! width="75"|Votes ! width="30"|% |- | style="background-color:;"|