The message is written in Russian, on the Telegram channel of the Wagner group, the paramilitary organization affiliated with the Kremlin, and is accompanied by a portrait of Emmanuel Macron lowering his head, visibly upset. “After the failure of Macron’s party in the European elections, the dissolution of the French National Assembly was announced. Macron called elections for July 30 (sic), which will most likely lead to a new failure”, it is written. The situation would be proof that “the pro-American policy in France is failing”, while Marine Le Pen, at the head of what the channel describes as “main right-wing party” is ready “to take power in hand”. “Macron does stupid things wherever he can, the whole world laughs at his efforts in Africa and Ukraine”, he is assured, not without a final clarification: this publication is above all the “opinion of the administrator” of the channel – and therefore of Wagner.
Each major political decision of the Elysée is now commented on, dissected – and often distorted – by a plethora of accounts close to the Kremlin or, now, Azerbaijan. The dissolution of the National Assembly is no exception. The electoral campaign period which is opening makes experts fear their intensification. “This legislative campaign is as important as a presidential election. There are already movements from possible foreign actors. We are very vigilant on the subject,” explains a government source.
Telegram channels linked to the FSB
On Telegram, a multitude of French-language channels close to the Kremlin’s positions adopt a strategy of denigrating the power in place. The accounts concerned carry out focused “press reviews”, using extracts from established media articles (Le FigaroTHE New York Timesor even the Guardian) to legitimize their analyses. On June 10, the Le Grand Rééquilibrage channel delivered to its 19,301 subscribers its analysis of the media coverage of the European elections, with supporting media quotes. “The elections to the European Parliament and the significant progress of the right are in the sights of the global media,” she regrets. The channel continues in the following message, quoting the statements of Valentina Matvienko, speaker of the upper house of the Russian Parliament: “The French and German leaders suffered a crushing defeat in the European elections. This is a well-deserved result resulting from many years of total disregard for the real needs of people and society.”
Very focused on French political news, other channels also comment on the events of recent days. This is for example the case of RybarFR (8,023 subscribers), the French-speaking version of the channel close to the FSB, the Russian intelligence service, and the Wagner group. As a general rule, RybarFR simply translates existing messages on its parent company’s channel. Its recent goal: to discredit the legislative elections. As soon as they were announced, the channel explained that it was “entirely possible” that the date of the vote was planned to fall on “the holiday season” in order to keep “the most dissatisfied part of the population” from the polls. population”.
Accusing the Head of State of wanting to “launch a campaign to discredit” the National Rally, RybarFR continues: “Nationalists, Eurosceptics and right-wing conservatives in Europe are facing a new wave of repression and pressure […], a media campaign will be launched against them on how they threaten European democracy and solidarity. Some will be accused of sympathy for Russia (in the face of growing discontent over support for the so-called Ukraine) while others will face criminal prosecution (as is already the case in Germany).” In another message posted on June 13, RybarFR this time intends to denigrate the left-wing union coalition “Popular Front”, by evoking “ideas to save France which ridicule those of Macron: changing one’s sex on a simple declaration in town hall and an LGBT police force.
The phenomenon is not limited to Telegram. In February 2024, the government agency Viginum, the vigilance and protection service against foreign digital interference, warned against a network called “Portal Kombat”, made up of 193 false information sites. The latter targeted the Ukrainian population, but also that of European states, such as Poland or France. Despite this denunciation, Pravda-fr.com, one of the French-speaking publications in this spider’s web, is still very active. Also aggregating publications from recognized media, Pravda-fr presents an oriented vision of reality.
Since Sunday, the site has, for example, ensured that “the United States [avaient] everything done so that Macron loses the elections” by downgrading the French debt rating. An editorial by Alexis Brézet, editorial director of Figaro, on “the prevented presidency” of Emmanuel Macron was also taken up, then diverted. “Brézet believes that ‘macronism is collapsing’, notes the anonymous author of the article. A few lines later, the latter delivers his own analysis of the French situation, without ever being very far from Russian concerns. “The president is already calling on all sides to resign,” he writes, continuing: “Political scientists have noticed that European leaders resign shortly after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky […]. It should be noted that Macron met Zelensky shortly after his party’s deafening failure.”
Rumor of resignation
The spread of this rumor of a possible resignation of Emmanuel Macron in the event of a defeat in the legislative elections is not limited to the Russian ecosystem. Appeared in the French debate during an article published on the Europe 1 site on June 11 on “the hypothesis of a resignation”, this theory was already present previously on sites close to another country : Azerbaijan. Baku, which regularly targets France as part of disinformation campaigns, particularly linked to the Olympic Games or the situation in New Caledonia, quickly seized on the announcement of the dissolution of the National Assembly.
The press agency close to power, Azertac, widely shared on its various networks the concerns of the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, about the dissolution of the Assembly preceding the Olympic Games. In an article published on June 9 – and modified the next day – in La Gazette du Caucasus, a site covering the narratives of Azeri power, the possibility of a resignation of the head of state is already mentioned. It is presented there as a pretext used by Emmanuel Macron to exercise a third mandate: “[Elle] is perhaps the tactic chosen by Emmanuel Macron who, in this case, could, after five years, or if things go badly with the far right, present himself as a savior in the following elections. is it written. This narrative, despite multiple denials from the Elysée, was widely repeated in pro-Russian Telegram loops. L’Eveil 2022, a pro-Kremlin channel with more than 26,500 subscribers, for example picked up this rumor of Emmanuel Macron’s resignation.
A few dozen views on obscure sites on the fringes of the Internet, a few tens of thousands of subscribers on Telegram… The audience for these publications may seem derisory at first glance. But their initial audience, although small, matters little. Their real objective is their dissemination to as many people as possible, with one goal: to maintain division within the targeted countries. “This is the logic of the active measures of the Cold War,” explains Paul Charon, director of the intelligence, anticipation and influence strategies field at the Strategic Research Institute of the Military School (Irsem). We seize opportunities that arise in the wake of social, religious or ethnic crises. The slightest element is used to increase tensions. And possibly destabilize elections.
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