Monday, April 25, the day after the second round, an excerpt from France 2’s election night was widely shared on social networks. We see a journalist explaining that Marine Le Pen has 13.9 million votes at the time the intervention is filmed. Problem: according to official figures from the Ministry of the Interior, the far-right candidate obtained 13.2 million votes. Where did the missing 700,000 votes go, and is this proof, some social media accounts wonder, of a « fraude massive » aimed at depriving the far-right candidate of a victory?
The answer is simpler: questioned by Les Décodeurs du Mondethe channel admitted to having suffered from a technical bug and that “the computer has added some municipalities twice”.
But the admission of France 2 does not prevent the sequence from being widely shared. Because it has been several months since the little music of electoral conspiracy was in the making on social networks.
What exactly happened on the set of France 2? Why does the “old-fashioned” French voting system leave very little room for the possibility of fraud? Who are these accounts that massively relay doubt in the sincerity of the ballot?
In this episode of the “L’Heure du Monde” podcast, Samuel Laurent, journalist with the Society department, explains to us how the fantasy of massive electoral fraud has developed in the conspiracy.
An episode edited by Cyrielle Bedu, directed by Amandine Robillard and presented by Jean-Guillaume Santi.
“The Hour of the World”
“L’Heure du Monde” is the daily news podcast of the Monde. Listen every day, from 6 a.m., to a new episode, on Lemonde.fr or on Spotify. Find all the episodes here.
Learn more about the results of the presidential election:
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