Early writings and filmmaking Aspiring to be a writer, Soral frequented Parisian "trendy" circles during the early 1980s. His younger sister
Agnès Soral, who gained prominence as an actress during the same period, allowed him to use her
stage name as his
pen name so he could benefit from her fame. The book's success gave Soral the opportunity to be employed at
ESMOD, where he gave a course on "clothing sociology". He later appeared as a panelist on TV shows. According to his own account, he devoted much of his free time to be a
pickup artist. which he described as a "Marxist analysis of seduction". Soral then developed ''Confession d'un dragueur'' ("Confessions of a pickup artist"), his first feature film as a director, purportedly based on his own experiences. The film's producer said that he had only realized belatedly that the statements found in the script about male-female relations were serious rather than ironic. Soral later commented that the failure of his film had been caused by "Jews and faggots", though he claimed that it had since become a "
cult film".
Libération called him in 2002 a "left-wing reactionary". Soral's 2002 book ''Jusqu'où va-t-on descendre?'' included a jibe at comedian
Dieudonné, whom he found too biased against "common" French people. Dieudonné then sought to meet Soral: the two men eventually became friends, having found, according to Soral, a common ground on "
anti-Zionism" and the "
Jewish lobby". During the 2000s, Soral, who presented himself as a
sociologist, claimed to oppose
communitarianism and stated that the "liberal-libertarian" ideology promoted by the French moderate left had imported anglo-saxon communitarianism into France, including its "feminist", "gay", and "regional" subdivisions. On the contrary, he commended the
Muslim community for its ability to produce "men raised in values". Before Soral's discourse began openly antisemitic, his analysis of communitarianism already included remarks about the Jews. He commented that in France, "all forms of growing communitarianism (gay, Islamic, etc.) form and strengthen through imitation of, hostility towards and opposition to
Judeo-Zionist communitarianism, whose privileged status constitutes the communitarian jurisprudence by which their claims against the Republic are supported".
Far-right radicalization In the course of the 2000s and 2010s, Soral's views and public persona became increasingly associated with
antisemitism. In 2004, he was interviewed in a segment on the television newsmagazine ''
Complément d'enquête'' devoted to Dieudonné's radicalization. While Dieudonné nodded in approval in the background, Soral said: Following this interview, one of Soral's book signings was disrupted by Jewish activists, with several people being wounded in the resulting brawl. Also in 2007, Soral founded his own political association,
Égalité & Réconciliation (
Equality and Reconciliation)., which aimed to attract working-class and disadvantaged voters. At the same time, he also launched a publishing company,
Kontre Kulture, which he used to publish himself and other controversial authors. In November 2007, he became a member of the National Front's central committee. Soral and
Dieudonné then headed an "anti-Zionist list" which included far-right, far-left,
Shia Muslim and
Holocaust denial activists and won 1,3% of the vote in
Île-de-France. Soral later acknowledged that the list had been funded with the help of
Iran. During the following years, Soral built a network of structures and businesses dedicated to promote his ideas while also benefiting him financially. No longer invited by the French
mainstream media after his move to the far-right, he turned to the Internet where he became particularly influential. He published countless
viral videos of himself discussing various topics; his movement's website became one of the most popular French-language sources of "alternative" information. Soral's association with Dieudonné also helped him gain in influence. He called the 2012
Toulouse and Montauban shootings a "joint French-Israeli operation" aimed at discrediting Muslims, and a "low-budget version of 9/11". In 2013, Soral started calling himself a "national-socialist", Soral also became a proponent of
Holocaust denial: he and Dieudonné associated with denier
Robert Faurisson and introduced his ideas to a new, younger audience. When Faurisson died in 2018, Soral paid tribute to him. In 2014, Soral and Dieudonné announced their intention to create a new political party, "Réconciliation nationale" (National Reconciliation), but this did not materialize. In 2016, Equality and Reconciliation was reported to have about 4500 members Soral also developed his movement's activities in Switzerland, especially after he moved there in 2019. In 2016, Soral was a guest speaker at an event about the rise of
alternative media and subsequent decline of mainstream media, organized by
Rossiya Segodnya in
Moscow. While in Russia, he praised
Vladimir Putin's government as a "model". His visit was endorsed by nationalist ideologue
Aleksandr Dugin. In 2017, Soral and his movement were banned from
Facebook for violating the platform's rules on
racism and
homophobia. In 2020, they were banned from
YouTube for hate speech. In 2019, it was reported that Soral's influence was waning in his political environment and that he was being criticized by younger conspiracy theorists, as his credibility had been damaged by his excesses and his tendency to profit financially from his political discourses. == Legal issues ==