A handkerchief, not cocaine: the Elysée Palace denounces false viral information surrounding Emmanuel Macron's trip to Ukraine

The Elysée Palace has denounced a disinformation operation "spread by the enemies of France" following the widespread circulation on social media of posts accusing Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz of having used cocaine during their recent trip to Ukraine.

"Be vigilant against manipulation," warned the Elysée in two publications on X, one in French and the other in English, on the night of Sunday 11 to Monday 12 May. "When European unity is disturbing, disinformation goes so far as to pass off a simple handkerchief as a drug," it denounced, in reference to the images widely shared to support the accusations.

Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, for his part, clearly pointed the finger at Russia. "We see you! So desperate to prevent peace in Ukraine that you are now spreading blatant hoaxes," he responded on X in English.

The French foreign minister accompanied his message with screenshots of posts by Kirill Dmitriev, Vladimir Putin's envoy for international economic affairs, and Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

Millions of views

The viral posts they shared have been viewed millions of times on social media. They have been shared in French, English, and Russian on X, as well as on TikTok and Facebook.

They were, for example, by the American radio host Alex Jones, a figure of the American far right, or in France by the president of the Debout la France party, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan , as well as by numerous usual disinformation relay accounts.

The shared images are photos or a video of Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer gathered in a compartment of the train that took them to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on May 10.

The French President is seen sitting down and taking a white handkerchief from the table in his right hand before crossing his arms, thus making himself invisible. At the same time, Friedrich Merz grabs a small object. Internet users pretend to see a bag of cocaine on one hand and a spoon intended for his consumption on the other, which they allegedly tried to hide.

"This is a handkerchief. For blowing your nose."

Present on the scene, the AFP photographed and filmed the sequence: its images show a paper handkerchief and what appears to be a small wooden pike .

"This is a handkerchief. For blowing your nose," the Elysée Palace jokes in its publication.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, supporters of Kiev, particularly France and Emmanuel Macron, have been regularly targeted by disinformation campaigns on social networks .

In a report published at the beginning of May, Viginum, the French organization for combating foreign digital interference, analyzed nearly 80 operations carried out by "Russian actors" targeting the Ukrainian government and its allies.