Several publications suggest that images showing thousands of French people at a demonstration waving tricolour flags are from the party following Macron’s defeat in Europe. But this is false.
On social networks, particularly Facebook and Threads, images of a closed space, full of people waving French flags, circulate. The images are broadcast as the moment when hundreds of French people celebrate the defeat of the party of the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, in the last European elections, on June 9. “France celebrates Macron’s defeat in Parliament [Europeu]”, reads one of the posts.
The European elections in France gave a clear victory to Marine Le Pen’s radical right-wing National Union party, with around 31% of the vote. The coalition that included Macron’s centrist Renaissance party only won 15% of the vote, a comprehensive defeat for the incumbent president. In third place was the Socialist Party (which has almost disappeared from the political scene in recent years), with around 14%.
But the images shared on social media do not show the reaction of French voters to the Renaissance result: they come from a demonstration that took place even before the evening when the MEPs who will take up their seats in the next legislature had just been elected. So were the images taken after the election results in France were known? The answer is clearly no.
The video in question depicts a demonstration by the far-right Reconquista party (led by Éric Zemmour) whose list leader for these elections was Marine Le Pen’s niece, Marion Maréchal. This rally took place on 10 March this year, at the Dôme de Paris (in the Palais des Sports), in the French capital, as can be seen from the images shared by the party’s president himself.
The demonstration, in a pavilion filled with thousands of supporters, marked the beginning of the campaign for the Europeans. The electoral results, however, placed the coalition of which Reconquista was a part only in seventh place, with 5.5% of the votes and just five deputies.
Conclusion
The images shared do not reflect the celebrations of the French after Macron’s defeat in the European Championship. They are from a demonstration by the far-right Reconquista party, which took place in March, three months before the elections.
Thus, according to the Observer classification system, this content is:
MISTAKEN
In Facebook’s ranking system this content is:
FAKE: Claims about the main content are factually inaccurate. Generally, this option corresponds to “false” or “mostly false” ratings on fact-checking websites.
NOTE: This content was curated by Observador as part of a fact-checking partnership with Facebook.
Source: Observadora
