Did Teresa Ribera, third vice president of Spain and Spain's minister for ecological transition and demographic challenge, fly on a private jet to attend a climate summit? No, that's not true: No aircraft used by Spanish dignitaries landed before Ribera was shown as being in Valladolid, Spain, the city where the summit was held.
The claim appeared in a post on Facebook on July 11, 2023. The post included a video of Ribera riding a bicycle; the video was titled "Spanish minister attending climate conference gets out of limo 100 metres before arriving to pretend she biked there." The caption of the post read:
She traveled most of the way in a private jet too.
This is how the post looked on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Jul 13 14:29:30 2023 UTC)
The video contained footage taken on July 10, 2023. Ribera is shown riding a bicycle alongside others also on bicycles. In a tweet posted on July 10, 2023, on the Spanish government's Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge official Twitter account, there is an image of Ribera on the bicycle. The text of the tweet, translated below by Google from Spanish to English, read:
The vice president @TeresaRibera arrives at the first session of the RIM in Valladolid
🔹 Meeting of European Environment Ministers within the framework of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union
🇪🇺🌿🇪🇸
There was no government-issued private jet that transported Ribera to the event. As reported by the independent journalism organization Maldita.es, the bicycle picture tweet was posted at 10:37 a.m. local time in Spain on July 10, 2023. None of the Spanish government's private aircraft that carry government dignitaries were shown as landing in Valladolid that day before the picture was posted. The only government aircraft dedicated to carrying dignitaries that landed in Valladolid that day, a Dassault Falcon 900, landed at 11:38 a.m., after the bicycle picture of Ribera was posted. This means she was already in Valladolid when the airplane landed. Below is a screenshot of the flight information of the government aircraft, with the flight times shown in local time in Spain:
(Source: Falcon Despega taken on Thu Jul 13 3:31:56 2023 UTC)
The Spanish government's Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge also refuted the private jet claim. In a tweet posted on July 10, 2023, and translated below from Spanish to English by Google, the ministry said:
🔴 STOP BULOS
@mitecogob denies the false news spread by public officials with manifest bad faith
▪️ VP @TeresaRibera did NOT travel by plane, commercial or institutional, to the RIM in Valladolid
Please be responsible with the information shared without contrasting
Maldita.es reported that it was told by the Spanish government's Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge that Ribera was mostly transported by car to the event and rode the bicycle as she approached the event. However, Lead Stories could not confirm the car-to-bicycle transition information through any other source. We have reached out to the ministry about this and will update this story with any relevant response.
