Jean-Noël Barrot, who presented the communication campaign for the June 9 elections, said that "two factors could disrupt" the European elections: a high abstention rate and foreign interference. To encourage French citizens to go to the polls, a communication campaign is being launched through various media, including radio, television and press, to recall the registration procedures and other issues of the ballot. Regarding the risks of disinformation, the French government "has created a reinforced surveillance mechanism", through the body, unique in Europe, specialized in the detection of foreign digital interference, the Viginum, the minister said. "At the same time, I asked the European Commission to exercise its powers of control and regulation over the major platforms, so that they are obliged to exercise maximum vigilance during the campaign period, the silent period and on election day," Barrot told the press, adding that he would "contact them in the coming days so that they present to us their action at French level, together with that of their regulator". The director of Viginum, Marc-Antoine Brillant, said that "since the mid-2010s, not a single major election in a liberal democracy has been spared" from attempts at manipulation. "2024 is a very special year with the persistence of two major conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza which, by their very nature, generate a lot of discussion and noise on social networks, and because France will have a very special exposure this summer with the holding of the Olympic Games," he added. In this context, the June vote is "particularly attractive to foreign actors in the manipulation of information". Jean-Noël Barrot also mentioned that in September, the national elections in Slovakia were "seriously disrupted during the silent period by the dissemination of a false audio recording incriminating one of the two candidates" who lost the elections. Although it is difficult to attribute the defeat to this false recording, "the mere fact that this content was disseminated during the silent period casts a veil of doubt on the sincerity of the ballot and, therefore, on the legitimacy of the elections", concluded Barrot. On Saturday, the minister had already warned of large-scale disinformation campaigns in France from Russia, in an interview with the newspaper Ouest-France, referring to the "proven risk" that this could "disrupt public debate and interfere in the campaign for the European elections". On March 26, the French National Assembly began debating a bill that will allow the freezing of assets of individuals or entities that, in relation to another country, attempt to "harm the fundamental interests" of France, with deputy Sacha Houlié, a member of President Emmanuel Macron's party, pointing to Russia, China, Turkey and Iran as the main countries from which interference comes. In February, French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné said that diplomatic services had discovered a vast Russian propaganda network, known as the "Kombat Portal", which was spreading pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian information in France, Germany and Poland. However, the threat of the spread of disinformation a few weeks before the European elections, which take place between 6 and 9 June, could also be a problem for other countries in the European Union. Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in an interview with Euractiv that Russian influence and disinformation affect all political groups in the European Parliament. Read Also: WhatsApp should help protect elections, defends Mozilla (Portuguese version)