Would Emmanuel Macron’s campaign team have difficulty filling the Defense Arena, for the meeting of the president-candidate on April 2? On social networks, an announcement, presented as coming from Pôle emploi, is very shared. “For the shooting in Paris of the meeting” of the outgoing president, he would be wanted “5,000 extras” to occupy the room with a capacity of 30,000 seats. They are asked to have “the voice to chant the name of the candidate for several hours” or to be “comfortable with lying in the event of an interview”. Remuneration: 126 euros gross, travel expenses covered.
“He hit rock bottom,” said a user. “It’s paid for with our tax money”, indignantly another. Florian Philippot, joined by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, also let himself be convinced: “Macronie seeks to find where it can a maximum of extras to fill the room! What misery ! This sham must end ASAP,” he tweeted on March 26.
FAKE OFF
The tone of the publication already let you guess: it is a fake ad published on a parody site, desourcesure.info, “verified news or almost”. The article was published on March 18. And the site’s Twitter account even published a true-false denial on March 21: “We wanted to apologize for our fake news which spread at high speed. Pôle emploi is not looking for 5,000 extras for Macron’s meeting . In reality it is 6,000. »
The advertisement is inspired, on the other hand, by a real offer, easily found with the number mentioned on the site of Pôle emploi. “Mustachioed men” are wanted for the casting of an American series on high fashion, if you are interested.
But from parody to reality, there is sometimes only one step: the candidate’s campaign team has been tempted by a contest to “attract curious people and talk, in a playful way, to a broader base than our members”, as she explains to us. An e-mail has thus been sent to participants registered for the meeting on 2 April. They are offered to sponsor their contacts. Those who have invited the greatest number of relatives to the public meeting will be able to win prizes, such as a time for discussion with a minister or even a portrait autographed by the candidate.
This “raffle” did not fail to provoke mockery from opponents of Emmanuel Macron such as Eric Ciotti among the Republicans or Olivier Faure of the Socialist Party. If the number of registrations for the meeting is not communicated, the campaign team considers that it is “promising and corresponds to [ses] Goals “.