PARIS — France’s far-right National Rally says a new report on Russian interference in French democracy is part of a “cabal” against the movement, after a Washington Post investigation revealed Moscow’s efforts to promote “political discord” in France and undermine support for Ukraine through “political figures and social media accounts.”
“Let’s be serious, this is a cabal,” National Rally MP and spokesperson Laurent Jacobelli said in a radio interview on Tuesday, claiming the newspaper’s report, which quotes Kremlin documents, insufficiently lists its sources and unfairly draws ties between Russian troll farms and France’s main far-right political force.
“This is more akin to gratuitous accusations than journalistic work,” he added.
The WaPo investigation says Kremlin strategists were tasked with delivering talking points to unnamed political figures to stress the alleged negative consequences of sanctions against Russia on the French economy.
The National Rally’s presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said as early as 2022 that the sanctions “serve no purpose other than to make the people of Europe suffer.” Last summer she deemed arms deliveries to Ukraine “irresponsible,” and asked French President Emmanuel Macron to “focus on organizing a peace conference.”
The Kremlin’s “drive belt”
Last June, a French National Assembly investigatory committee on foreign interference underlined ideological ties between the National Rally and Russia’s leadership, labeling France’s second-largest party in terms of MPs a “drive belt” for Moscow.
Ahead of the 2024 European Parliament election in France, where the National Rally is currently projected to finish first, the movement announced that it had paid off in full a loan from Russian company Aviazapchast S.A. National Rally opponents had long flagged the loan as a sign of the party’s ties with Russia; during the 2022 presidential runoff debate, Macron told Le Pen that she “talks to (her) banker” when she speaks with Russia.
Jordan Bardella, the National Rally’s president and 2024 top candidate, distanced himself from the party’s past Russia policies, admitting there had been a “collective naivety about [Russian President] Vladimir Putin’s intentions and ambitions” in an interview last February.
In March 2022, Bardella and other National Rally MEPs voted for an EU resolution to condemn Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, but later abstained on a vote to provide macro financial assistance to Ukraine in November 2022, and again last June on a resolution mentioning Russian disinformation efforts in the EU.
“It’s no longer a surprise: the Washington Post shows, with evidence, that the National Rally is indeed the Kremlin’s mouthpiece in France,” Macron’s Renaissance party said on X, formerly known as Twitter, shortly after the paper’s story was published. Party spokesperson Loic Signor also shared an AI-altered clip of Le Pen’s new year address, showing a deepfake of the three-time presidential candidate speaking Russian.
