SEEDS OF DOUBT CAST
Hackers take aim at French election, spread fake info
French presidential front-runner Emmanuel Macron’s political team says it was the target of a “massive and coordinated” cyberattack, which resulted in private documents stolen from campaign staffers’ email accounts being leaked online, along with fake material.
Macron’s team, in a statement yesterday, said hackers stole campaign emails and financial information a few weeks ago and that the leaked documents were mixed with false documents to “seed doubt and disinformation” and destabilize tomorrow’s presidential runoff with nationalist rival Marine Le Pen.
Although it’s unclear who was behind the hack and the leak, the fact that a nationwide campaign blackout went into effect minutes after Macron’s announcement means Le Pen officials couldn’t legally comment on the development.
Polls showed the Centrist independent candidate leading Le Pen by a wide double-digit margin when campaigning ended at midnight last night.
The French election campaign commission says it will investigate the hack and will hold a meeting early today to discuss it.
The commission urged French media not to publish the documents and warned that some of the material is “probably” fake.
Meanwhile, France’s presidential voting watchdog is calling on the Interior Ministry to look into claims made by the Le Pen campaign that ballot papers are being tampered with to benefit Macron.
The Le Pen campaign alerted the CNCCEP watchdog yesterday after officials claimed electoral administrators in several regions — including in Ardeche, Savoie and the Loire — who received the ballot papers for both candidates, have found that the Le Pen ballots had been “systematically torn up.”
CNCCEP asked the Interior Ministry to find out more information about the reports.
On the final day of campaigning, Macron says he didn’t bow to multiple calls to change his political positions opportunistically to appeal to a broader base of voters following the first round of voting.
The pro-business Macron said it wouldn’t have been “democratically honest” to change his program to appeal to the 7.1 million supporters of far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, who was eliminated in the April 23 vote that Macron won.
Le Pen, meanwhile, stressed that whether or not she wins the election, her campaign “changed everything.”
Seemingly preparing for a defeat, Le Pen said that regardless of the outcome, she has achieved an “ideological victory.”
“Even if we don’t reach our goal, in any event, there is a gigantic political force that is born,” she said, adding her party managed to “impose the overhaul.”