French presidential candidate Attal files complaint over alleged Russian disinformation

Full text

Former prime minister and presidential candidate Gabriel Attal has filed a complaint over an alleged Russian disinformation campaign ahead of next year’s French presidential election, local news outlets reported on Saturday.

Attal’s lawyers told French media that the complaint, filed on Friday, denounces “acts of foreign interference, manipulation of information, fabrication of content likely to undermine the fundamental interests of the nation and the sincerity of the upcoming presidential election.”

They told BFMTV that several accounts on social network X, some of which impersonated French and international media, had disseminated fake video reports and newspaper articles attributing false statements to Attal that were “intended to discredit him as a candidate.”

Attal, the candidate of President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party, said earlier this week that he had been a victim of attempted election interference originating in Russia, and that he expected such destabilization efforts to increase ahead of the April 2027 presidential election.

Viginum, the country’s agency for fighting online disinformation, confirmed it had detected the operation against Attal and said it bore the hallmarks of pro-Russian disinformation tactics.

Attal is the latest French presidential candidate to have fallen victim to such disinformation campaigns. Former prime minister Edouard Philippe was reportedly targeted last week, as was center-left parliamentarian Raphaël Glucksmann .