“While France is bloodless, Macron allows himself to write a check for 1.6 billion to his friend Bill Gates! “For several days, many Internet users have been up against a “gift” that the President of the Republic would have made to “his friend”, the billionaire Bill Gates.
In question, a promise made by Emmanuel Macron to “pay 1.6 billion to the Bill Gates Global Fund”.
Repeated dozens of times, this accusation quickly turns into “Emmanuel Macron offers 1.6 billion public money to Bill Gates”. A heresy when you know that the fortune of the founder of Microsoft is estimated at more than 100 billion dollars…
FAKE OFF
The Internet users in question base themselves on the speech of the President of the Republic delivered on September 21. On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the seventh replenishment conference of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was held.
This conference, organized on the initiative of American President Joe Biden, aimed to raise funds for this organization.
A non-profit charitable organization
The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, often shortened to “Global Fund” (or Global Funds in VO) is a charitable organization that fights against the three diseases mentioned and other infectious diseases throughout the world .
Created in 2002, at the initiative of Jacques Chirac and the former UN Secretary General, Koffi Annan, the organization serves as a financial instrument to raise funds from governments or private institutions in order to donate it to countries affected by these diseases.
Acting by fundraising every three years, the Global Fund mobilizes and provides nearly 4 billion dollars a year for these fights. According to the organization’s website, the death rate from tuberculosis has fallen by 21%, and that from malaria by 26%, since its inception, saving nearly 50 million lives.
France promises an additional 300 million euros by 2025
In his recent speech, available on the Elysée websiteEmmanuel Macron thus recalled that France had “increased its contribution to 1.3 billion euros” in 2019, before adding that Paris was going to top up its donation with an additional 300 million euros in the next three years, bringing the total to 1.6 billion euros.
If the sum quoted by Internet users is therefore correct, its destination, the Global Fund, is not directly linked to Bill Gates.
The billionaire, not a beneficiary but a donor
Indeed, the billionaire is neither leader nor manager of the organization. And contrary to what some say, the foundation he created with his wife, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, is not the beneficiary of the funds, but one of his biggest donors, along with other private structures like Apple or Motorola. It is also cited for this on the Global Fund website.
Often considered as one of the great leaders of the “great global conspiracy” in the conspiracy, the presence of Mr. Microsoft in such accusations is more certainly manipulation than confusion.
