The Russian Matryoshka bot network has launched a disinformation campaign targeting Gabriel Attal, the French presidential candidate from Emmanuel Macron’s party. Researchers from the Antibot4Navalny project, which tracks the activity of pro-Russian bots on social media, shared information with The Insider regarding eight fake videos released ahead of the April 2027 election.
The videos are styled to resemble reports from major French news outlets including BFM, RFI, Le Parisien, AFP, France 24, Le Figaro, Libération, and Le Monde. Each ends with the same conclusion: “the scandal will weaken Attal’s standing ahead of the 2027 presidential election.” However, the “scandal” in question differs from message to message. As the bots variously allege:
- Attal said that due to Islam’s many prohibitions, there are actually “more homosexuals among Muslims than in any other religious group.” In response to the made-up quote, the bot campaign invented the following response from Chems-Eddine Hafiz, rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris: “An openly gay man is mistaking his wishes for reality. Perhaps Mr. Attal would like there to be many perverts like himself amongst Muslims, but that is not actually the case.”
- The campaign claims that the politician’s father, Yves Attal, died of a cocaine overdose in 2015 and that Attal himself suffers from drug addiction. One video alleges that police “documented offenses” committed by Attal while under the influence of drugs, but that the records were later destroyed. Addiction specialist Laurent Karila is falsely quoted as saying that a child of a long-term drug addict has “a 90% chance of becoming a drug addict.”
- Attal is falsely claimed to have Parkinson’s disease, “like the American actor Michael J. Fox.” According to the bots, this was “confirmed” by a leak from Paris’s Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital after hackers supposedly breached its database and published 3% of its records, which happened to include Attal’s medical file. François Vidal, editor-in-chief of Les Echos, is falsely quoted as saying: “I was going to vote for him, but it’s now clear that Mr. Attal needs a rest rather than getting involved in political games.”
- The campaign claims that Attal “oversees candidate selection” at the Sciences Po Institute of Political Studies, shaping “a political elite loyal to Macron.” The allegation is attributed to a supposed former lecturer at the institution, Arnaud Boutté, while France 24 is falsely said to have “verified 5% of the information, and even that sample proved entirely accurate.”
- Attal is falsely portrayed as calling for undocumented migrants not to be evicted from vacant homes and describing the influx of migrants from Morocco into Spain as “a great blessing.” Le Figaro editor-in-chief Alexis Brézet is falsely quoted as saying that Attal is “a complete idiot if he sincerely believes these people will come to France to work rather than to steal, kill, and sell drugs.”
- The campaign claims that Attal’s father’s foundation has become “one of the largest private sponsors of the Israeli army,” transferring €24 million in 2025. Al Jazeera editor Ahmed Sheikh is falsely quoted as saying that the sum “would have been enough to kill far more than a thousand Palestinian children,” while Libération director Sonia Delesalle-Stolper is falsely quoted as accusing Attal of “hypocrisy,” claiming that “deep down he hates the Islamic world just as his father did.”
- The bots claim that the anti-corruption organization Anticor lost its accreditation because of an investigation into the use of Attal’s father’s foundation to “launder” funds that had been “stolen from military aid programs for Ukraine.” Le Monde director Jérôme Fenoglio is falsely quoted as saying, “Gabriel Attal’s father must be turning in his grave right now. He’s turning because his son stole billions, not trillions.”
The bots use some real facts as a framework for their fabrications. Attal is indeed openly gay and was in a civil partnership with politician Stéphane Séjourné for many years. As education minister in 2023, he did ban the traditional Muslim abaya in French schools. And the anti-corruption organization Anticor did lose its accreditation in 2023 — but as a result of a court ruling, with no connection whatsoever to Attal’s father’s foundation.
In addition, Attal’s father, film producer Yves Attal, did die in 2015, but there is no evidence to support claims that he died of an overdose. Nor is there any evidence that Gabriel Attal has Parkinson’s disease, suffers from drug addiction, or made the statements about migrants attributed to him.
The Insider has obtained links to the original posts and materials provided by the Antibot4Navalny project, confirming that the accounts which published them belong to the Matryoshka bot network. The newsroom is not publishing direct links in order to avoid amplifying the disinformation.
The campaign ahead of the 2027 presidential election
Attal officially announced his presidential bid on May 22, 2026, during a visit to the commune of Mur-de-Barrez in the Aveyron department. With Macron constitutionally barred from seeking a third term, the former prime minister and current secretary-general the Renaissance party is widely regarded as the president’s political heir. Within the centrist camp, Attal is expected to compete with Édouard Philippe, who announced his own candidacy back in September 2024.
The campaign against Attal is the first large-scale Matryoshka operation targeting France’s 2027 presidential election, though the network has repeatedly targeted France in the past. Earlier, it spread false claims about “leaked correspondence” from the hacked government messaging platform Tchap, falsely attributing to Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin plans to turn Armenia into “a military foothold against Russia.”
What is Matryoshka?
Researchers use the name “Matryoshka” to describe a Russian influence operation that spreads disinformation on a massive scale through a coordinated infrastructure of bots, trolls, and anonymous online platforms. Its goal is to generate artificial information noise and manipulate public perception of events both in Russia and abroad. The Antibot4Navalny project dubbed the operation “Matryoshka” after the traditional Russian nesting doll: its bots conceal one another, while false narratives are propagated in layers across multiple platforms, making it difficult to trace the original source.
The operation itself creates large numbers of fake accounts posing as ordinary people, independent media outlets, and think tanks. These accounts publish dozens of posts each day, imitating local language and writing styles. Next, it launches identical content simultaneously across social media platforms. To make the disinformation appear credible, the bots use the logos of well-known Western media outlets and human rights organizations.
