Did World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab confess that there is a "political revolution" that is making headway against his "Great Reset" agenda? No, that's not true: Schwab never said that during his remarks made at a summit. A clip of his speech was completely taken out of context in an article by a website known for spreading conspiratorial misinformation.
The claim appeared in an article (archived here) published by The People's Voice on January 19, 2024, titled "Klaus Schwab Admits 'Political Revolution' Against The 'Great Reset' Is Destroying His Agenda." The article began:
World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab has admitted the people of the world have rejected his 'Great Reset' plan for humanity and have risen up against the establishment.
Users on social media saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Klaus Schwab Admits 'Political Revolution' Against The 'Great Reset' Is Destroying His Agenda
World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab has admitted the people of the world have rejected his "Great Reset" plan for humanity and have risen up against the establishment.
Klaus Schwab's speech
The article includes a post (archived here) published on X, formerly known as Twitter, on January 18, 2024. The article uses this post to justify its claim. The post contains a clip of a speech made by Schwab and is captioned:
Klaus Schwab now admits that we're seeing a political revolution against his Great Reset plans.
Whether you want to believe it or not, he's finished. He might still be standing, but he's done.
He forgot how powerful we are.
Neither the article from The People's Voice nor the post made on X provide much-needed context about the clip. The speech from which the clip originated is not recent: Schwab made the comments in March 2017 during the main address of that year's World Governments Summit (archived here). Additionally, he does not mention any kind of "Great Reset" that a "political revolution" is "destroying" in the clip nor during the entirety of the speech.
At the beginning of the speech, Schwab sets the basis for his remarks, saying that there are two systems at play in the world: neoliberalism and an approach that leads to "a world which probably is characterized by fragility and hostility." However, he says that he is proposing a new system "which is in line with the new world which is unfolding." At the point at which the clip is taken (the 7:24 mark into the video of his remarks), he is describing how there is a "revolution" in the U.S. against the "old" neoliberal system and an "anti-system" called libertarianism "which means to tear down everything which creates some kind of influence of government into our private lives." These statements, however, are not the same as the claim is suggesting: the only "revolution" he mentions is that against neoliberalism, which he says he also wants to depart from.
Other Lead Stories fact checks related to Schwab can be found here.
The People's Voice
The People's Voice has a lengthy record of publishing false stories in the past. It describes itself as a resource "comprised of various web pages operated by Fact Checked Limited," but it has nothing to do with fact-checking.
As of this writing, its website contained a liability disclaimer, saying:
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