By Michel Rose and Andreas Rinke
PARIS (Reuters) -President Emmanuel Macron’s office has accused France’s enemies of spreading fake news by suggesting that he and other European leaders had taken drugs on a train during a visit to Kyiv.
Video footage published online showed Macron sitting at a table in a train compartment with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In the footage, Macron removes a crumpled white object from the table.
Some social media users suggested – without providing evidence – that the object was a “cocaine” bag and Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova reposted the footage.
Both Paris and Berlin rejected the allegation.
Macron’s Elysee office said the white object was a tissue.
“When European unity becomes inconvenient, disinformation goes so far as to make a simple tissue look like drugs,” the Elysee said in a post on X, above a picture of a tissue on the table captioned: “This is a tissue. For blowing your nose.”
“This fake news is being spread by France’s enemies, both abroad and at home. We must remain vigilant against manipulation,” the Elysee said, without identifying the enemies.
“We reject this absurd claim,” a German government spokesperson said when asked for comment on the matter by Reuters.
“It is indeed just a tissue,” Merz’s conservative party, the CDU, wrote on X. “Many sides are currently trying to influence public opinion through disinformation campaigns. Enemies of our democracy are specifically trying to weaken European unity and social cohesion.”
Macron, Merz, Starmer and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday in a show of solidarity with Kyiv more than three years into Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Zakharova wrote on Telegram: “As in the joke, a Frenchman, an Englishman and a German boarded the train and … got high. Apparently, so much so that they forgot to remove the accessories (a bag and a spoon) before the arrival of the journalists.”
France has started to take a more forceful approach to countering online rumours. It has tasked its Viginum foreign disinformation watchdog with monitoring Russia-linked social media accounts and uncovering influence operations.
French officials have also expressed concern about media accounts linked to the American alt-right.
“Our public debate is bombarded with Russian propaganda, relayed by the American far-right,” French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on X last week.
(Writing by Rachel More, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
