Alain Soral

Alain Gérard Robert Guy Bonnet, known professionally as Alain Soral (French: [alɛ̃ sɔʁal]; born 2 October 1958), is a far-right French-Swiss author, publisher, ideologue, conspiracy theorist, activist and filmmaker.

From the 1990s, Soral gained some fame in France for his essays and media interventions on seduction, relations between men and women and various social issues, though his antifeminist views and other provocative stances caused some controversy.

A self-professed Marxist, initially considered far-left, he evolved towards the far-right during the 2000s and eventually joined the National Front which he left after two years. Having created his own political movement, Égalité & Réconciliation (Equality and Reconciliation), he espoused openly antisemitic positions, associating himself with comedian-turned-activist Dieudonné. He also became one of France's most influential conspiracy theorists.

Soral has been convicted multiple times of hate speech, both in France and in Switzerland, mostly for antisemitism but also for Holocaust denial and homophobia.

Early life

Alain Bonnet was born in Aix-les-Bains, Savoie. His father was a French-Swiss notary and legal advisor. He grew up in the suburbs of Annemasse (Haute-Savoie), where he attended a local primary school. When Soral was about 12, his family moved to Meudon in the Paris area so that he could go to a private Catholic high school, the Collège Stanislas de Paris. His family, which has roots in Soral, Switzerland, has long used "Bonnet de Soral" as an unofficial name.