As the European Parliament plenary prepares to discuss the EU Democracy Shield — an initiative designed to protect democratic processes and institutions across the bloc — misleading claims about it have emerged online, alleging it will be used to "cancel" results unwelcome in Brussels, potentially even subverting France's 2027 presidential election.
While the claims are clearly false, as the EU has no mandate to change election results, the fake claims, which began circulating in 2025, recently resurfaced at the hands of Florian Philippot, president of the French nationalist Patriots party.
Talking about some of the EU Democracy Shield's provisions, he claimed on YouTube that the anti-disinformation package "could lead to the annulment of the electoral process in all EU countries, as well as France's 2027 presidential election…similarly to what happened in Romania."
Although the French Patriots party has no seats in parliament, its leader enjoys a huge social media base, with nearly 700,000 subscribers on YouTube alone.
What is the European Democracy Shield and what does it actually do?
