Renaissance MP Constance Le Grip denounces Russian and Chinese interference in France, in the report of the parliamentary commission of inquiry on the subject, where she recommends stricter rules for the retraining of political figures and better protection of French researchers.
Published on Thursday, this report had already leaked last week for the part devoted to the National Rally, which Constance Le Grip accuses of having been an "effective transmission belt" of the Kremlin's speech. Marine Le Pen immediately castigated a "dishonest" and "politicized" report.
"Cyberattacks" and "manipulation of information"
Beyond the RN, the elected representative of Hauts-de-Seine decrypts the methods of interference in France such as "cyberattacks", "manipulation of information", "attacks on scientific heritage" or the "recruitment of former officials". It makes Russia the "main threat" in this area and points to a "Russianization" of China which, according to it, has "increasingly resorted to aggressive and malicious maneuvers".
Regarding the "informational war", the MP affirms, based on an investigation by Le Monde, that the "Russian responsibility is little doubt" in the case of the "Macron Leaks" of 2017, a leak of "nine gigabytes of data relating to the campaign of Emmanuel Macron" put online on May 5, two days before the second round. She is also concerned about the "capture" of certain elites, accused of "naivety" or even "connivance" with Russia, with a "tendency" of some retired senior French officials, "in particular officers of the French army" to "develop in the media a discourse close to Russian positions".
" READ ALSO Why Crimea did not vote "freely" its attachment to Russia, contrary to what Marine Le Pen says
For senior officials, the rapporteur advocates a stricter "incompatibility" regime for retraining in positions within companies serving foreign states, and the maintenance of a "duty of discretion". Same type of recommendations for former politicians: the MP calls for "reviewing the rule of limitation of new professional careers" controlled by the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP), thanks to longer incompatibilities and which could "exclude certain geographical areas".
It focuses in particular on the case of former Prime Minister François Fillon, who served on two boards of directors of Russian multinationals, who left since the war in Ukraine. And on that of Maurice Leroy, former deputy and minister, still in office in the construction development company Mosinzhproekt (MIP), responsible for managing the projects of Greater Moscow. Regarding China, "the most important threat" weighs on French "research and companies", says Constance Le Grip. "Chinese infiltration into academia and research laboratories has become an absolutely major point of attention for the French authorities," she said.