Russian interference clouds French result
FRANCE’S new president will be known this morning, as the spectre of Russian interference hangs over the most bitter presidential election campaign in decades.
Centre-left independent Emmanuel Macron, 39, was on track to defeat ultra-right rival Marine Le Pen, 48, with the result expected to be declared in the early hours of this morning.
But in similar circumstances to the US election where the computers of the campaign team of Hillary Clinton’s Democrats were hacked and damaging information passed on to WikiLeaks and published, Mr Macron’s En Marche! campaign suffered a similar hack.
A massive cache of documents, emails and photographs were leaked in the final 48 hours of the campaign, mixed in with fake and fabricated documents.
The almost immediate publication of stories about the documents by dodgy Russian websites gives rise to the suspicion that Russia may be behind the leaks, in support of Ms Le Pen, who admires Russian President Vladimir Putin.
En Marche! said it had been the victim of a “massive and co-ordinated’’ hack, with the information published anonymously through the documentsite Pastebin.
While there was nothing immediately emerging which looked damaging to Mr Macron, who appeared to have the keys to the Elysee Palace within reach last night, the possibility of Russian involvement will further enrage the West.
While US President Donald Trump still expressed doubts, all US intelligence services said Russia sought to influence the presidential campaign.
France’s leading Republican candidate, François Fillon, was knocked out in the first round of the campaign after being indicted over his payment of more than $1.2 million in taxpayer funds to his wife and children to work for him.
The Socialist candidate, Benoit Hamon, was also knocked out at the first round after securing only 6.5 per cent of the vote.
This was the first election since the 1950s where neither of the major parties had a candidate in the second round.