The main news of March, namely the presidential election in France and the war in Ukraine, are mixed on social networks. Several publications claim that the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky “calls on the French to vote for Emmanuel Macron” during the ballot organized on April 10 and 24.
Information that seems to come straight from the BFMTV Twitter account, if we are to believe the screenshot shared by Internet users. Many people were indignant, like this Internet user: “Mr. Zelensky, you have no orders to give me, my vote for Macron will only take place in your dreams. Fabrice Di Vizio, lawyer and staunch critic of Covid-19 vaccines, also shared the information, saying: “It’s getting big there! No ? Quickly, Fabrice Di Vizio suppressed his reaction. Enough to cast doubt on the veracity of the information.
FAKE OFF
No need to look for the original publication on the BFMTV Twitter account: it never existed. The so-called screenshot is actually a montage, as explained by Raphael Grably, journalist and head of the news channel’s “tech” department. “A crude montage uses the image of BFMTV to make believe that Zelensky calls to vote Macron (spoiler: the tweet is a fake). Some have dived…”, he posted on his social network.
The false information may have seemed crible to some Internet users, since Emmanuel Macron and Volodymyr Zelensky have spoken several times since the start of the war in Ukraine. But it is under his caps of President of the Republic and President of the European Union that Emmanuel Macron tries to play the intermediaries between Russians and Ukrainians.
The president also seems to have put his term as army chief before his campaign, delaying the announcement of his candidacy because of these clashes in eastern Europe.