Patrick Molinoz, vice president of the Association des Maires de France et des présidents d'intercommunalité, alleged Russian social media interference during France's Oct. 17 protest unrest, Euronews reported, amid scrutiny of security preparations.
Molinoz said Russia had intervened on social media and described some attacks as planned in an interview published Oct. 20, according to Euronews's written account. The account identified no Russian accounts or investigation linking online activity to any attack; the allegation remains unverified.
The demonstrations drew different turnout estimates. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez put attendance at 550,000 across 110 marches, including 110,000 people in Paris. The CGT labor union estimated nearly 800,000 participants nationwide and said demonstrators sought higher wages, pensions and social benefits. EconoTimes previously reported Nuñez's account that police lost control in some cities.
The association's Oct. 19 declaration characterized attacks on municipal buildings and businesses as premeditated. It urged authorities to use intelligence to stop violent people from entering marches. The association said residents, shopkeepers and municipal employees bore the consequences of the attacks, but it did not blame a foreign actor.
President Emmanuel Macron addressed the violence in an Oct. 18 speech. He identified living costs and fuel prices as protesters' concerns and separately discussed young people's worries about education. Macron cited attacks on buildings and shop looting while seeking answers about intelligence and preparations, without attributing the unrest to Russia.
An earlier assessment of protest-related online activity covered the period before the violence. Viginum, France's foreign digital interference watchdog, told Le Monde in September that it had found limited foreign activity around online calls for an Oct. 17 protest, most of it with little reach. That assessment does not address activity during or after the demonstrations.
The CGT has called for another day of strikes and demonstrations on Nov. 5.
