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ELECTION

French Socialists vote for presidential candidate

France's Socialists voted on Sunday in the first round of a presidential primary with candidates including former prime minister Manuel Valls seeking traction in an election expected to see the country tilt to the right.

French Socialists vote for presidential candidate
The campaign run by former PM Manuel Valls has been seen as lacklustre. Photo: Philippe Lopez/ AFP
The primary is being viewed as a crucial test of the party's ability to survive and even re-invent itself, with Socialist President Francois Hollande deeply unpopular after five years in office.
   
After Hollande ruled himself out of the race, Valls quit his cabinet and was the favourite to win the nomination when the seven candidates began campaigning.
   
But his bid has been viewed by some observers as lacklustre and two contenders from the party's left flank — protectionist maverick Arnaud Montebourg and Benoit Hamon — will push him hard to reach next Sunday's
runoff.
   
The odds will be stacked against the victor, with many opinion polls showing the Socialist candidate will be eliminated in the first round of the presidential election on April 23.
   
The election appears to be shaping up as a three-way battle between conservative ex-premier Francois Fillon, far-right leader Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old ex-economy minister who is outpacing his former Socialist government colleagues.
 
With voters across Europe moving to the right, most polls currently show a Fillon-Le Pen runoff is the most likely scenario in May.
 
National Front leader Le Pen told a meeting of rightwing populist parties in Germany on Saturday that Europe was about to “wake up” following the victory of Donald Trump in the US election and the British vote to leave the European Union.
   
One voter in southwest France said he had voted for Hamon, who has proposed to pay the poor and 18 to 25-year-olds a “universal income” of 600 euros ($640) a month.
   
“I voted for Benoit Hamon because to me he is the one best placed to redress the Socialist party,” said Jean Claude, speaking in the small town of Millau.
   
Dominique, a voter in his 40s who cast his ballot in eastern Paris, said he had opted for Valls.
 
“My main concern is that the left reaches the second round (of the presidential election). Valls is the most credible option against Macron,” he said.
   
Macron, a relative newcomer to politics, resigned from the government in August to set up his own centrist movement and his speeches have been packed to capacity in recent weeks.
   
A poll published Thursday gave Macron between 17 and 21 percent of the vote in the first round of the election.
   
“The Macron effect is real,” said political analyst Stephane Rozes.
 
Some Socialist heavyweights have hinted they could support Macron over their party's nominee if he looks to have a better chance against Le Pen. Asked in a TV debate Thursday whether they would contemplate stepping aside and backing Macron, Valls, Montebourg and Hamon all demurred.
   
Macron himself has ruled out a pact with the Socialists, announcing Thursday he would field his own candidates in parliamentary elections in June.
 
The Socialist primary has failed to energise voters who are hungry for change after economic stagnation under Hollande. Turnout at the halfway point of the day was far lower than in the centre-right Republicans primary last year, party officials said.
   
Just 400,000 people had voted according to figures from 63 percent of the polling stations. At the same point in the Republicans' primary, the figure was more than twice as high. Voting ends at 1800 GMT.
   
Communist-backed firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, who like Macron is polling in double digits in his campaign as an independent, also risks splitting the leftwing vote.
   
Valls, who was slapped this week by a protester, set out to modernise the party but has struggled to unite his camp, with his rivals accusing him of betraying leftist ideals by forcing through labour market reforms.
   
The four other candidates running in the primary are former education minister Vincent Peillon, ecologist Francois de Rugy, ex-MEP Jean-Luc Bennahmias and radical left candidate Sylvia Pinel.
 

ELECTION

German Greens’ chancellor candidate Baerbock targeted by fake news

With Germany's Green party leading the polls ahead of September's general elections, the ecologists' would-be successor to Angela Merkel has become increasingly targeted by internet trolls and fake news in recent weeks.

German Greens' chancellor candidate Baerbock targeted by fake news
The Greens chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock on April 26th. Photo: DPA

From wild claims about CO2-emitting cats and dogs to George Soros photo collages, 40-year-old Annalena Baerbock has been the subject of a dizzying array of fake news, conspiracy theories and online attacks since she was announced as the Greens’ chancellor candidate in mid-April.

The latest polls have the Greens either ahead of or level with Merkel’s ruling conservatives, as the once fringe party further establishes itself as a leading electoral force in Europe’s biggest economy.

Baerbock herself also consistently polls higher than her conservative and centre-left rivals in the race to succeed Merkel, who will leave office after 16 years this autumn.

Yet her popularity has also brought about unwanted attention and a glut of fake news stories aimed at discrediting Baerbock as she bids to become Germany’s first Green chancellor.

READ ALSO:

False claims

Among the false stories circulating about Baerbock is the bizarre claim that she wants to ban household pets in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Another fake story firmly denied by the party claimed that she defied rules on mask-wearing and social-distancing by embracing colleagues upon her nomination earlier this month.

Baerbock has also been presented as a “model student” of Hungarian billionaire George Soros – a hate figure for the European far-right and anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists – in a mocked-up social media graphic shared among others by a far-right MP.

More serious online attacks include a purported photo of Baerbock which in fact shows a similar-looking naked model.

The Greens’ campaign manager Michael Kellner said that the attempts to discredit Baerbock had “taken on a new dimension”, that “women are targeted more heavily by online attacks than men, and that is also true of our candidate”.

Greens co-leader Annalena Baerbock earlier this month. Photo: DPA

Other false claims about the party include reports of a proposed ban on barbecues, as well as plans to disarm the police and enforce the teaching of the Quran in schools.

While such reports are patently absurd, they are potentially damaging to Baerbock and her party as they bid to spring a surprise victory in September.

“She has a very real chance, but the coming weeks are going to be very important because Baerbock’s public image is still taking shape,” Thorsten Faas, a political scientist at Berlin’s Free University told AFP.

In a bid to fight back against the flood of false information, the party has launched a new “online fire service” to report fake news stories.

READ ALSO: Greens become ‘most popular political party’ in Germany

Russian disinformation

Yet stemming the tide is no easy job, with many of those who peddle disinformation now using private messaging services such as WhatsApp and Telegram rather than public platforms such as Facebook.

The pandemic and ongoing restrictions on public life will also make it harder for the campaign to push through their own narratives at public events.

Miro Dittrich of Germany’s Amadeu-Antonio anti-racism foundation claims that lockdown has “played a role” in the spread of fake news.

“People are isolated from their social environment and are spending a lot more time online,” he said.

Another factor is Russia, which has made Germany a primary target of its efforts to spread disinformation in Europe.

According to the European anti-disinformation platform EUvsDisinfo, Germany has been the target of 700 Russian disinformation cases since 2015, compared to 300 aimed at France and 170 at Italy.

As an outspoken critic of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Germany and Russia, Baerbock may well become a target of such attacks during the election campaign.

By Mathieu FOULKES

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