In July 2024, a video began to circulate online purporting to show people with Algerian flags celebrating the victory of the unification of leftist parties in the elections to the National Assembly. We decided to check if this is true.
On July 8, the day after the second round of early parliamentary elections in France, publicist Alexander Nevzorov in his Telegram channel (468,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) he published several videos, one of which showed a group of people waving Algerian flags to music. “The leftists are widely celebrating their victory,” Nevzorov wrote.
The video, which the publicist published on the Telegram channel, lasts 7 seconds. In the center of the frame is a statue on Republic Square in Paris, surrounded by people with Algerian flags (green and white panels with a red crescent and star). The music behind the scenes is Algerian national anthem.
On July 7 at 20:00 local time the first results second round of elections to the National Assembly. Members of the French Parliament are elected in 577 single-mandate constituencies, to win in the first round a candidate must receive more than half the votes. If it is not possible to determine the winner, then a second round is held among candidates supported by at least 12.5% of voters, where it is enough to secure a simple majority. In the first round, the far-right National Rally was in the lead, but by the second round, the left-wing New Popular Front and the Together alliance supporting President Emmanuel Macron joined forces and pushed the party of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardell into third place. As a result, the New Popular Front (182) received the most seats in the new convocation of the National Assembly, Together (168) was in second place, and National Unity was in third (143). The main place in Paris celebrations became Republic Square.
The video, filmed on the evening of July 7, shows French flags, with the flags of Morocco and Palestine in the frame for a few seconds. Algerian is not among them.
In the viral video, people are dressed warmer than in the July 7 footage: many are wearing jackets and sweatshirts with hoods. Using a reverse video search, Verified found similar footage from a rally that took place at Paris's Place de la République on March 17, 2019.
On video, filmed by AFP, Algerian and Berber flags. In addition, the same white poster with a vertical red line appears in the frame as in the viral video.
The demonstration in Paris in 2019 was dedicated to political events in Algeria. Head of State Abdel Aziz Bouteflika decided to run for a fifth presidential term, despite his advanced age and illness. Started in Algeria protests, then it turned out that Bouteflika was hospitalized in serious condition. In March he officially announcedthat he will not be nominated for a new term. This was the theme of the rally at Place de la République in Paris.
Thus, the video of protesters waving Algerian flags has nothing to do with the 2024 elections. It was filmed five years earlier and has nothing to do with the left's victory.
Photos in the regionOzhke: screenshot “Checked”
Read on topic:
- BBC. French people reject the far right - again.
- Le Monde. Qui va gouverner la France? Les scénarios possibles pour un gouvernement après le second tour des législatives.
- Is it true that protesters started a fire in the north of Paris after the victory of the far right in the first round of parliamentary elections?
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