Fact Check: Video of pro-Palestine rally in Lyon shared as victory parade of new French government
A video has gone viral claiming to show a victory rally for the new French government with more Palestinian flags than French flags.
By Sibahathulla Sakib Published on 8 July 2024 3:41 PM GMT
Claim: The video of the victory rally of the new French government shows people carrying more Palestinian flags than French flags.
Fact: The claim is false. The video is from a pro-Palestine protest in Lyon on June 1, held before the French elections.
Hyderabad: The French Left coalition recently won the most seats in the 2024 Legislative Elections, holding back a far-right surge but failing to get a majority. This has left France with a hung Parliament. Amid these events, a video has gone viral claiming to show a victory rally for the new French government with more Palestinian flags than French flags.
A Threads user shared the video with the caption, “Hundreds of people waved flags of Palestine yesterday celebrating the left-wing coalition's victory in the French elections, with the leader of France Insoumise announcing their intention to recognize Palestine as one of their first moves.”
The claim has also been repeated by mainstream news outlets. We found the viral visuals in a report by Sky News Australia titled "‘Paris will burn’: Chaos erupts in France as left wing alliance predicted to win". In this report, Sky News Digital Presenter Gabriella Power says 'this is what the victory rally for the new French government looks like and as you could see in that footage there are far more Palestinian flags being waved than French flags. In fact, there are hardly any French flags.'
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false.
A reverse image search of the video’s keyframes led to the same video shared in an X post from June 1 with the caption, “Today’s protest in Lyon, France: ‘And wall by wall, And stone by stone, We will destroy Colonization’. (sic)” The French elections were held on June 30.
Further, we did a keyword search and found that there was a pro-Palestine gathering in Bellecour, Lyon, on June 1. A French news website, BFM TV, reported that the event was organised by the Palestine 69 collective and called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Also, the location where the viral video was shot matched the Google Street View of Bellecour Square, the place of the pro-Palestine protest.
Moreover, none of the actual victory celebration videos for the new French government matched the viral video. Visuals from TRT News titled ‘Leftist alliance wins most seats in French parliament’ showed different clips of the victory celebrations.
We also found similar reports by The Guardian and Forbes.
Hence, the claim is false. The video is from a pro-Palestine protest in Lyon on June 1 and has nothing to do with the recent French elections.
