Sarah Knafo: The Rising Strategist Behind Eric Zemmour’s Presidential Bid

While she was unknown to the general public, Sarah Knafo made the cover of Paris Match a few days ago. Le Monde devoted a long portrait to her. The newspaper traces her rise in the world of high administration and sovereignist right. The grandparents of the young woman are Moroccan Jews who had come to France in 1967, in the aftermath of the Six-Day War. Young Sarah attended a private Jewish high school in Pavillons-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis). At 18, she settles in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in Paris. Previously, she lived in the home of a hypnotherapist mother, a business executive father and her sister Cindy Knafo, an eccentric fashion photographer.

After leaving high school, she became interested in Sarkozyism in 2012, became a member of the UMP and forged a close friendship with the son, Louis Sarkozy. In 2014, she is a member of a Eurosceptic association, Critique de la raison européenne. She takes the opportunity to expand her network with Henri Guaino, Jean-Pierre Chevènement, Hubert Védrine, Jacques Sapir, Marie-France Garaud, Alain Finkielkraut... After several unsuccessful attempts, she manages to integrate the ENA. She enrolls in the Cours Cochet theater school, then enters Sciences Po in 2014 after failing her admission to the École Normale Supérieure. On the web, she describes herself as "textually obsessed", "actress", "Séguiniste and Bonapartist".

Sarah is often criticized, notably for her slightly embellished CV: she would have claimed to have been the "parliamentary collaborator" of Henri Guaino -one of her mentors- to the surprise of the real collaborator, or claimed to have written a report on illegal immigration for the Directorate General of Foreigners in France. A report of which no one has a trace. She will not have realized her ambitions, particularly those of the Inspection Générale des Finances (IGF). "All she was interested in was whether she could do something other than work full-time, recalls a member of the inspection. She wanted to use the IGF as a rear base to get into politics."

The meeting between the one described as "hardworking", "cultivated" or "determined" and Eric Zemmour dates back about ten years. The polemicist is an old friend of the family. A Maghreb specialist even explained to them that their ancestors had lived in the same Berber village: "the Zemmours would have gone to the mountains, in Algeria, the Knafo towards the Moroccan coast, in Mogador, today Essaouira, where the young woman has returned several times - that’s where her grandfather is buried".

To accompany the journalist in his presidential ambition, Sarah has taken a leave of absence after several reminders. "I urged her to take a leave of absence," says the first president of the Cour des Comptes, Pierre Moscovici. "I don’t police people’s thoughts, it’s a very liberal house. But my role is to protect the institution by avoiding involving it in the campaign." The commitment of the young woman alongside the author of La France n’a pas dit son dernier mot does not please some colleagues. "She is capable of saying anything, looking you in the eye. Everything is a lie," grumbles a Cour des Comptes advisor.

With her Alexandre & Aristote association, a website that advises on "essential books", her well-stocked address book, will Sarah Knafo be able to take up the immense challenge that awaits her - if Zemmour were to be declared an official candidate in the 2022 presidential election - namely the polemicist’s victory in the presidential election?