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| - Fact Check: Protestors DID NOT tear down EU flag in Rome on election day, this video is from 2013
A video purportedly showing protestors tearing the EU flag in its Rome headquarters has been widely shared on social media. AFWA's investigation found that while the video shows Rome's EU headquarters, it is nine years old.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is not a recent one but from 2013. It happened during a protest against economic hardship and austerity in the country.
Italy witnessed an emphatic victory for the far-right Fratelli d’Italia of the Brothers of Italy party. As the party’s leader, Giorgia Meloni, is poised to become Italy’s first female prime minister, there is much for the European Union to be concerned about.
The BBC noted that while Meloni has diluted her anti-EU rhetoric lately, she declared in a speech in Spain earlier this year, among other far-right stances, "No to the bureaucrats of Brussels!" This code for the EU as Brussels is considered the de facto capital of the Union. Her party has also said it would seek to renegotiate Italy’s Covid-19 recovery funds from the EU.
With this tension in the backdrop, a video purportedly showing protestors tearing the EU flag in its Rome headquarters has been widely shared on social media. People who shared the video claimed that Rome witnessed vandalism on election day and protestors took over the EU headquarters, tearing the Union flag and replacing it with the Italian one.
#Italy: Protesters went up to the #European_Union headquarters in #Rome and tore up the "Union" flag and replaced it with the Italian flag.
Italy's general election today, may bring the conservative right for the first time since World War II.#UkraineRussiaWar #UkraineWar pic.twitter.com/P0nF1DO4Vd — (@jouhinanewssy) September 25, 2022
An archived version of this post can be seen here.
AFWA's investigation found that while the video shows Rome's EU headquarters, it is nine years old.
AFWA Probe
Upon reverse searching frames from the viral video, we found an extended clip uploaded to YouTube on December 17, 2013.
The Italian title of the video said, "Italian protesters replace the European flag with the national flag." Its description mentioned that the protest was held at the EU's headquarters in Rome on December 14, 2013, where agitators reached the headquarters' balcony to replace the European flag with the Italian flag.
A comparison between screengrabs of the viral and the YouTube video makes it evident that both are from the same incident.
Reuters reported on December 15, 2013, that the EU flag was torn down from the European Commission’s Rome headquarters after a week of protests against economic hardship and austerity in the country.
Per the report, several far-right activists were arrested and charged with theft, resisting authority, and unauthorised protest. However, it was only the beginning as Italy soon witnessed a wave of protests all over the country against its longest post-war recession.
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