A tweet which was quickly deleted from Russian news website Lifenews, titled “Moscow will help Le Pen win the elections”, led to rumors of Kremlin support for Front National’s presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on the day of her visit to Russia on March 24th. However, whilst this website supports Russian President Putin, it is not an official body as was believed by many members of the public. Moreover, the link provided in the tweet directs us instead to an opinion column written by a political scientist, entitled “Le Pen is scared of no one”.

(Translation: ‘This Kremlin tweet was deleted in 5 minutes. Word for word it says that “Moscow will help Le Pen to win the elections.”)

The deleted tweet however still figures on another Twitter account that belongs to Lifenews.

The article related to this deleted tweet is an opinion column by the political scientist Dmitri Rodionov, as indicated by the word “Мнения”, which means “opinions”. The author explains that the Front National candidate is not afraid to come to Russia, “despite the anti-Russian climate in the European Union”, but never mentions any help from Russia to Marine Le Pen.

Lifenews is not a state-run media outlet. It belongs to the News Media organization and was founded by Ashot Gabrelyanov. He, however, does support Putin, and the Gabrelyanov family – influential in many sectors in Russia – has expressed its support for the Russian president several times.

Lifenews deleted this tweet several hours before the cancellation of an alert by the press agency Interfax according to which the Kremlin was announcing the financing of Le Pen’s campaign by Russian banks. This alert, published after a press meeting given by Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, was replaced by another in which Dmitri Peskov was confirming that the question of financing the National Front candidate had not been brought up during her meeting with Putin.

The alert cancelled by Interfax

The new alert published by Interfax

In February, the French foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, denounced the interference of Russia in the French presidential campaign. Yet, Putin insisted during Le Pen’s visit that Russia “would/will not influence the elections.”

Several websites, among which Riposte Laïque, state that the Marine Hotel in Paris is about to be “promoted to a slavery museum”. They base their statement on an article published by the extreme right-wing weekly Minute. Yet, this article was contested by the director of the Center for National Monuments.

The rumor originates from a report on the remembrance of slavery that was given to the Minister of the Interior in March 2017. Its authors advocate the creation of a memorial site in Paris on slavery and its abolition. They suggest several locations, the Marine Hotel on Concorde square being the first one on the list. This building is the ex-ministry of the Navy and Colonies and “hosts the office where Victor Schoelcher signed the decree for the abolition of slavery” in 1848. The building ceased to be the headquarters of the Navy in 2015 and it is now under reconversion.

Extract of the report proposing the set-up of the foundation in remembrance of slavery at the Marine Hotel.

The report’s authors propose that the foundation in remembrance of slavery be set-up at the Marine Hotel, but they recognize that “there needs to be an institution, a scientifically-oriented museum, that is distinct from the site”. Hence, Minute, as did Riposte Laïque, used simple proposals to support their claims.

Questioned by CrossCheck on the possible conversion of the Marine Hotel into a slavery museum, the direction of the Center for National Monuments categorically denied the claim: “The answer is no.” Its future use will be unveiled “very soon”, they added.

A collective of historians had already asked for the conversion of the Marine Hotel into a slavery museum in 2011 – before the publication of the report – in order to safeguard a “site of national and colonial memory”.

The prosecutor of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), Elian Houlette, is not married to Thierry Aulagnon, director of the office of the Minister for Economics and Finance, contrary to a rumor that has gone viral on social media.

(Translation: ‘The leaks. Will the press say: Mrs. Houlette is president of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office and the wife of the director of Sapin’s cabinet.’)

The 64-year-old prosecutor is being accused of collusion with the government, due to the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) having decided to investigate the suspicion of fictitious jobs given to French presidential candidate François Fillon’s family members.

However, this rumor of a marriage between Mrs. Houlette and French Finance Minister Michel Sapin’s office director is false. Indeed, Thierry Aulagnon is the husband of Maryse Aulagnon, CEO of the real-estate group Affine.

One web user who spread the false information has since rectified her tweet, but only by publishing another false message. She claims the existence of an affair between “a judge of the PNF [National Financial Prosecutor’s Office]” and “a director of (Michel) Sapin’s office”, but the prosecutor mentioned this time is Ariane Amson, who no longer works for the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office but for the Elysée Palace, and her husband Pierre Heilbronn, who no longer works for the Ministry of Finance, but for the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

(Translation: ‘Error! The PNF judge whose husband is the deputy director of the Sapin cabinet is: Ariane Amson. Collusion is alive and well!’)

Eliane Houlette, ex-general attorney of Paris, was nominated prosecutor of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office in 2014, by decree of the French President after a decision by the high council of the judiciary. Since 2012 the current government has committed to following the judiciary’s proposals for the nominations of PNF prosecutors. The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office was created following the Cahuzac scandal. Last December, Mrs Houlette came in person to lodge a claim against ex-minister François Hollande, who was condemned in the first instance to three years in jail in a case of tax fraud.