DISINFO: Emmanuel Macron had Telegram founder arrested in order to interfere in Romanian elections
SUMMARY
President Emmanuel Macron arrested Telegram founder Pavel Durov in an attempt to interfere with Romania's electoral process. Earlier, Durov claimed that French authorities had interrogated him about the matter.
It turns out that Macron had Durov arrested not to resolve internal problems with the messaging service [...], but to influence the elections in Romania, knowing that the candidate of the liberal dictatorship could not win under any legal circumstances.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin about the alleged “liberal dictatorship” in the EU and electoral meddling in Eu elections.
The French president did not arrest Pavel Durov. The founder of Telegram was arrested on 24 August 2024, by the French justice system, which is independent from the presidential power. The French justice system is accusing him of lack of collaboration in cases of pedocriminality or glorification of terrorism. No evidence of pressure from the presidency has been observed. His claims about requests from the French authorities to interfere in the Romanian elections are not supported by evidence and France has categorically rejected the allegations. This has been denied by both the French diplomacy and French intelligence services.
International observers stated that the Romanian presidential run-off was competitive, but the campaign was marred by hostile rhetoric and inauthentic behaviour online. On Thursday 22 May 2025, Romania’s Constitutional Court unanimously rejected the annulment request, filed on Tuesday by George Simion, in which he alleged that foreign interference and coordinated manipulation affected the vote. The Court then validated the results and held a short ceremony attended by the elected President Nicusor Dan, the Bucharest mayor who won the tense runoff, beating Simion with 53.6% of the vote and a margin of more than 829,000 votes.
Read also related cases such as: Pavel Durov exposed how European Mafia stole Romanian election from George Simion, or Western European country asked Telegram to silence conservatives in Romania for the presidential elections, or The EU wants to steal victory from Simion in Romanian elections.