Macron accuses foreign leaders of exploiting French riots
French President Emmanuel Macron has accused foreign leaders of using the recent riots in France for political gain ahead of upcoming elections.
Without mentioning any names, Macron said some leaders were exploiting the violence, which erupted on the sidelines of protests over the cost of living, to advance their electoral campaigns at France’s expense.
Speaking during a visit to the Middle East, he referred to them as leaders who were campaigning, both within the region and across the Atlantic.
His remarks appeared to target Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces parliamentary elections next week, and US President Donald Trump, whose country is preparing for midterm elections next month.
Macron also accused the unnamed leaders of being influenced by fake videos generated using artificial intelligence (AI) and circulated online following the riots.
Nearly 150 people have been jailed, while more than 800 others have appeared before the courts since the unrest swept through Paris and other French cities, including Lyon, Marseille and Nice.
Videos showing clashes between masked protesters and police, the destruction of property and the looting of shops spread widely across social media.
The French government acknowledged that the police had “lost control” during the violence, which followed weeks of student protests over conditions in high schools.
Following the unrest, Macron vowed that authorities would take a firm stance against what he described as agitators from far-left groups, whom he blamed for much of the violence.
Speaking in Doha, the Qatari capital, Macron said there was no clear evidence of direct foreign interference in the events themselves but accused foreign actors of manipulating information afterwards.
He criticised comments by foreign leaders who had claimed that France was being overwhelmed by migrants and Islamists, describing such assertions as entirely false.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel’s i24 television channel that France, home to Western Europe’s largest Muslim minority, had experienced what he called an “invasion of extremist Islam”.
He recalled warning Macron after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that failure to eliminate the threat in Israel could lead to similar developments in Paris. Netanyahu argued that the current situation in France reflected those warnings.
Trump also blamed the riots on mass immigration, arguing on Tuesday that the unrest in France and Italy was driven by people entering the countries who, he claimed, were hostile to their host nations.
He urged Macron to close France’s borders and regain control before the situation worsened.
Meanwhile, the European Union is reportedly investigating possible foreign online interference and disinformation campaigns linked to the French riots and similar unrest in other member states.
According to the Financial Times, unnamed security officials believe that pro-Russian and far-right social media accounts associated with previous disinformation campaigns have circulated violent footage to intensify tensions.
The report also suggested that Iran and Algeria could be linked to some of the messaging.
David Colon, a disinformation researcher at France’s Sciences Po university, said pro-Kremlin influencers associated with the Russian operation Storm-1516 had amplified the unrest and spread several false claims.
France has been among Ukraine’s strongest military supporters in its war against Russia. Relations with Algeria remain shaped by the legacy of French colonial rule and Algeria’s independence war, while France’s ties with Iran have been strained by the conflict involving Iran, the United States and Israel.
BBC Verify reviewed more than 15 examples of fake videos circulating on social media that researchers from the US-based dTeam attributed to a Russian disinformation operation known as Matryoshka.
The videos used branding resembling that of established French media outlets, including Le Monde, Euronews and France 24.
Although the individual reach of the videos appeared limited, experts said the effort to amplify unrest was consistent with known Russian disinformation tactics.
In a separate investigation, BBC Verify traced a widely circulated AI-generated image allegedly showing an elderly couple being robbed and stripped to their underwear in Paris to a little-known website.
Sabrina Hania, director of Infos-Israel.News, told the BBC that her team had created the image using ChatGPT without relying on a reference photograph. It was published on October 17.
The image circulated shortly after a television journalist reported the alleged incident, citing police information. However, the claim remains unverified, and French media reported that prosecutors had no information confirming that the incident occurred.
Although the original image was labelled as AI-generated on X and Instagram, it was later shared on X without a disclaimer in a post that attracted more than six million views.
Hania said she regretted that the image had been taken out of context and had misled many people, blaming those who redistributed it without disclosing that it had been generated by AI.
Source: BBC
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