Less than two months before the European elections, Raphaël Gluksmann appears to be the rising figure, even if PS-Place publique is only in third position in the polls. In the middle of the campaign, he was warned of a disinformation maneuver targeting him on social networks, coming from accounts linked to China, his entourage told AFP on Tuesday.
Mr. Glucksmann “is the subject of informational maneuvers by pro-Chinese actors and coming from pro-Chinese accounts, who accuse him of being the Trojan horse of the Americans – in particular of the CIA in Europe”, confirmed to AFP a security source. The MEP was warned of this campaign by the government body Viginum, responsible for tracking disinformation during election periods.
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Raphaël Glucksmann already banned from traveling to China
“The Chinese regime has already officially sanctioned me and the Russian regime has already multiplied fake news and threats against me, it is not these pathetic slanders that will make us deviate from our path: the fierce defense of our democracy and Europe”, reacted the person concerned on X.
Mr. Glucksmann, who benefits from favorable polls less than two months before the election, is in Beijing’s crosshairs for his commitment to the Uyghur Muslim minority. He was sanctioned for this in 2021 by China, which notably banned him from traveling on its soil.
It was predictable that the authoritarian regimes I am fighting would attack our countryside.
The campaigns from China detected by state services – whose work I salute – will not intimidate me.
We will never let go.#WakeupEurope
— Raphael Glucksmann (@rglucks1) April 16, 2024
The rumor linking Mr. Glucksmann to the CIA has been circulating for many years but has resurfaced with greater intensity on social networks in recent weeks, relayed to the far right as well as by representatives of the radical left.
Fake news relayed within the European Parliament
It dates back to the time when Mr. Glucksmann was advisor to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, from the blitzkrieg between this small Caucasian country and Russia in 2008, until the electoral defeat of 2012.
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Mr. Glucksmann was also married to Mr. Saakashvili’s former deputy interior minister, Eka Zgouladze. A relationship which also earns him its share of “fake news relayed by the RN” even in the hemicycle of the European Parliament, deplores those around him, while Mr. Glucksmann chairs the special committee on foreign interference in all processes democratic societies of the European Union.
The General Secretariat of Defense and National Security (SGDSN), an organization attached to Matignon and on which Viginum depends, had recently warned against attempts at foreign interference in the June 9 election. The campaign targeting Mr. Glucksmann is so far the first to have come to light publicly.