Capital: How false sparks ignite real fires

Our Martin Michelot contributed to an article for the Bulgarian Capital on the role of fake news within the French elections.

There is cause for some concern as Russia clearly prefers some candidates - Fillon and Le Pen, who are close to its values. And as Russia clearly identifies Macron as the contender who will challenge most of its interests. Propagated rumors circulate on his personal life, such as being at the forefront of an influential gay lobby or the choice of financiers. In practice there are attempts to change the narrative of elections. But the truth is that there are enough candidates who are against the EU and NATO, so Moscow really does not have to influence more than necessary. There are, of course, trolls, and some of them Russian, but not all. There were also hacking attacks on the Macron campaign servers, but it is impossible to firmly link them Moscow.

You can read the whole artice (in Bulgarian) on Capital's website.

Martin Michelot
Senior Associate Research Fellow

Expertise: NATO and transatlantic security, European foreign policy and defense, French politics, elections and society, Visegrad Four and Central Europe, EU institutional issues