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| - Fact Check: Giorgia Meloni DID propose an anti-Soros law. But she wasn't Italy's PM then
This video of Giorgia Meloni talking about an 'anti-George Soros' law is from June 2018, when Giuseppe Conte was Italy's prime minister.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is from June 2018. At the time, the Italian PM was Giuseppe Conte and Meloni was in the Opposition.
The winter session of Parliament has almost been a washout owing to frequent disruptions over the alleged affiliations of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress party with billionaires Gautam Adani and George Soros respectively.
But has Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also jumped into the ring now against George Soros? Many claimed so while sharing a video of Meloni talking about Soros. “George Soros is worried about Italy? Right! The anti-Soros law is coming. Giorgia Meloni (PM of Italy)” read the text inside the video.
Sharing the clip, one person wrote in Hindi, “Here in India, the debate on George Soros is going on in Parliament for four days now. From Rahul Gandhi, Congress farmer movement, to INDI alliance, all funding is being done by George Soros. And in Italy, Giorgia Meloni is angry with George Soros and is saying that she is going to make a law, due to which George Soros and his NGO will not be allowed to enter Italy. And all the money deposited in the Italian bank accounts of George Soros and his NGO will be confiscated by the Italian government.”
India Today Fact Check found that this Meloni clip is from June 2018 when Giuseppe Conte was Italy's prime minister, and Meloni was in the Opposition.
Our Probe
Reverse searching keyframes from the viral video led us to a post stating that the viral video of Meloni talking about George Soros was six years old. Further searches led us to a post on Meloni’s official X account dated June 4, 2018, containing the video in question. Its Italian caption read: “Soros is worried about Italy? Right! The anti-Soros law is coming.” At the time, Meloni also shared the same video on her official Facebook and Instagram accounts.
We found a video report about this from June 5, 2018, on the official YouTube channel of an Italian news organisation, Vista Agenzia Televisiva Nazionale. Its description quoted Meloni saying that if the Italian government does its job well, a law proposed by the Fratelli d'Italia will come into effect and prevent people like George Soros from financing non-governmental organisations that allegedly weaken sovereign states. The Fratelli d'Italia or the Brothers of Italy is a right-wing populist political party led by Giorgia Meloni.
Meloni’s viral video was released a day after billionaire George Soros called for the European Union to compensate Italy for migrants landing there. This was in reaction to then-Interior Minister and far-right leader Matteo Salvini warning migrants to “pack their bags”.
We also found details about this video on the official website of Fratelli d'Italia in an article dated June 4, 2018. It stated that the head of Fratelli d'Italia, Giorgia Meloni, declared that the party was working on an anti-George Soros bill to stop NGOs that promote illegal immigration after the same was done by Viktor Orbán’s government in Hungary.
It is noteworthy that Giuseppe Conte was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Italy as his party, the Five Star Movement, formed a coalition government with the far-right League party on June 1, 2018. Meloni, on the other hand, was sworn in as Italy’s first female Prime Minister on October 22, 2022.
Who is George Soros?
Born in 1930 in Hungary, George Soros, a Jew, escaped the Nazi occupation and moved to the UK in 1947. Soros founded the philanthropic organisation Open Society Foundations, which supports democracy and human rights in more than 100 countries.
In February 2023, while addressing the Munich Security Conference, Soros talked about the allegations against the Adani Group by the US short-seller Hindenburg Research and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being silent on the subject, stirring a controversy.
Thus, it’s clear that the video of Meloni talking about Soros is more than six years old!
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You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
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