The French newspaper Le Figaro published no such video and reported no such poll.
A video bearing the logo of the French daily Le Figaro is circulating on social media and Russian Telegram channels. It claims that 89% of French citizens consider Vladimir Putin the best candidate for the country’s presidency. According to its authors, a French poll found that the Russian president would handle the mass protests by high school students better than any of the candidates in the upcoming presidential election.
The video is a fake. Le Figaro released no such clip and reported no poll showing that 89% of French people would like to see Putin as their president. No such figures appear on the paper’s official website or in its coverage. Nor do the video’s authors name the polling firm supposedly behind the survey, or give its date, sample size or methodology.
Le Figaro does publish polling, including on the high school student protests in France. On Oct. 1 and Oct. 8, 2026, the research firm Odoxa released two surveys conducted for Le Figaro and Backbone.
According to the Oct. 1 survey, 62% of French people considered the students’ protests justified. At the same time, 61% of respondents disapproved of the left-wing party France Unbowed (LFI) meddling in the protest movement.
In the follow-up survey on Oct. 8, support for the students’ demands stood at 63%. Meanwhile, 81% of French people said violence during the protests could not be justified under any circumstances. A further 58% said law enforcement bore no responsibility for the violence.
Neither survey contains anything about support for Vladimir Putin or his ability to handle the protests better. Both examine how French society views the actions of the protesters, political parties, the government and law enforcement.
What is more, genuine opinion polling shows that the French hold a largely negative view of the Russian president.
A poll by Verian, conducted Jan. 1–5, 2026, among 1,511 adults living in France, found that 78% of respondents viewed Vladimir Putin negatively, while just 12% viewed him positively. Even among supporters of the right-wing National Rally (Rassemblement National), only 21% rated the Russian president favorably.
The French polling institute Ifop recorded a similar trend in 2025. According to its study, published on March 7, 2025, 84% of French people viewed Putin negatively and only 10% positively.
These surveys measured French attitudes toward the Russian president, not their willingness to vote for him. Still, the results show how far the claim of 89% support for Putin diverges from the real data on public sentiment in France.
StopFake has previously examined a similar narrative in Fake: 68% of Poles Believe Putin Would Be the Best President for Their Country.
