A full-fledge information campaign started in France with the purpose to modify the public opinion regarding sending troops to Ukraine. The French society is strongly against this venture. What methods are in use to reconvince it and what this has to do with bedbugs, which became a threat for the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris?
Having voiced the open intention to send troops to Ukraine to prevent the military defeat of the Kiev regime, the French President Emmanuel Macron faced an unexpected misunderstanding of his fellow citizens (and his voters at the same time, which, by the way, will soon vote at the European Parliament election). The citizens who have heard for two years that the assistance provided to Ukraine will surely not make France a conflict party felt something was wrong and started to worry. After a few polls commissioned by the media, the French people openly and categorically rejected the idea to send French troops to Ukraine.
To mitigate the impression and try to pull the public opinion in his direction, Macron and his companions launched a full-fledge campaign to reconvince citizens. On Friday, Stéphane Séjourné, the foreign minister, gave a lengthy interview to France Inter radio channel, where he mostly talked about the relations with Russia. The statements of the French MFA head are worth being largely quoted:
There is a risk of Ukraine’s collapse, which will have its consequences… One of them is an economic disaster because in this case Russia will control 30 per cent of the global grain market enabling it to impose its conditions. The purchasing power of the French people depends on the cost of raw materials, too…
A humanitarian crisis will be another consequence – there will be a wave of refugees resembling the one during the Second World War. 10 million Ukrainians may flee from Ukraine. And then, we are well aware as we have information about it, Russia will not stop there… And this relates to Moldova and, specifically, to Transdniestria.
Actually, the situation is similar to 1938 when we let the invasion of Sudetenland… I am not saying we are at the same point, but history repeats itself and one of the lessons learned is that if you succumb to an imperialist power, it makes a step ahead. The (French) President has precisely defined our purpose: a very clear framework has been set, namely, to put Russia in check without going to war with Russia. And within that framework, nothing is ruled out… Besides, Russia is attacking us’.
After that Séjourné explained to the bewildered radio hosts that Russia ‘is attacking us right now with information and in the cyberspace, and do not forget we are in a complex situation as we are preparing for the European election, the Olympic Games… Our public services, transport and hospitals – just imagine transport will stall because of cyber-attacks, that hospitals will stop working’.
Elaborating on his idea, the foreign minister added: ‘I am aware of destabilisation efforts in progress today. Only one such network (which, Séjourné claims, they could identify) consisted of 193 dormant websites spreading disinformation… As you see, there is an entire strategy, as building such a network is very expensive. This is to organize manipulation and disinformation in the run-up to the European election’.
Already from this statement one can see which pain points of public opinion the French authorities are trying to impact: the fear of hyperinflation and the negative (whatever the French say to deny it) attitude to migrants. At the same time, they are trying to accuse Russia of attacking France and drawing apparent parallels between Russian and Nazi Germany.
Almost at the same time with the foreign minister, France’s Secretary of State for European Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot spoke publicly too – he gave an interview to TF1 channel. He also made a categoric statement that Russia is threatening France’s interests in the information field, and the risk is huge! ‘On the instruction of the French President, Viginum agency was established, a watchdog tracking maneuvers to destabilize public opinion in France and weaken the support our society is lending Ukraine…
For example, the gossip about a bedbug outbreak has been artificially fomented in social networks by the users, which, as we have found, originate or are linked to Russians. They were trying to convince that the bedbugs have something to do with the arrival of Ukrainian refugees in France’.
The bedbug issue became quite relevant in France in autumn. But it is strange to hear that it is purely Russia’s fault, as bedbugs were discussed by both the French media, including BFMtv, Le Parisien, along with dozens of others, and foreign media, such as the famous and prominent media outlets, CNN and USA Today.
Le Parisien’s article talks about the closure of schools for disinfection due to bedbugs in different French regions. Citizens showed videos of bedbugs crawling in trains, not only in commuter carriages but also in premium trains. Complaints about bedbugs came from cinemas and hotels in various cities.
In other words, people faced a very specific and large-scale issue. This is what the media are now calling “psychosis” – why not call everyone who complained about bedbugs Russian agents? A very easy thing to do, instead of addressing the issue, is to accuse those complaining of supporting the enemy’s propaganda.
By the way, the version that it is Russia which is fomenting the “bedbug psychosis” was expressed already in autumn, but the purpose announced back then was to “denigrate France’s image a few months before the Olympic Games in Paris”. Today Russia is simply accused of “attacking” France with information.
The reaction to such accusations of the French people themselves are even more illustrative. For example, here are some comments on the article of Figaro: ‘Excuse me, but in my house in the 16th administrative district of Paris we have a bedbug issue several times a year and we have to call a pest control agency. Is Moscow’s hand also involved in this?’ ‘Finally, the National Rally is not to blame? If it’s not its fault, then Russia’s, uh’. ‘Well, what about COVID?’ ‘The floods in the north of France are also Russia’s fault?’
Marine Le Pen’s party was mentioned for a reason: lately, the French authorities have been combining verbal attacks against Russia with attacks on the National Rally, which is, allegedly, pro-Russian and the society should not trust it because of that. The high rating scores of the National Rally (10 per cent higher than those of the President’s party, according to January polls) is another reason for Macron to harden his position on Russia.
In the interview mentioned above, Jean-Noël Barrot, while accusing Russia, every time remembers to poke the National Rally, which he accuses nearly of selling-out national interests. And when Macron states that Russia must lose for the sake of democracy and peace, if translated into the real language, it simply means that he and his clique need our defeat to simply keep the power. As a matter of fact, he is not concerned of either Ukraine’s fate or bedbugs, or the safety of his fellow citizens. He is interested not so much in Ukraine’s victory, rather in winning the election.