France hits back at false claim Macron, Starmer and Merz had drugs on train

Condemning “fake news” and accusing Russia of seeking to undermine efforts to bring peace to Ukraine, France has hit back over false claims on social media that European leaders including President Emmanuel Macron were seen taking drugs on a train.

The accusation was made widely on X by figures such as the US radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, but then also propagated by Russian officials, including foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

They shared actual footage of Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz meeting in a compartment on their train to Kyiv, heading to talks on Saturday with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.

As Merz and Starmer arrived in the compartment, Macron was seen removing a white tissue from the table. The accounts claimed, without any evidence, that the white object contained cocaine.

Pictures taken inside the train by Agence France-Presse and other media showed that the white object was a crumpled tissue.