Does a video on social media show a crowd waving more Palestinian flags than French flags and celebrating victory for the political left in July 2024 French elections? No, that's not true: The video posted to "prove" the claim was shot during a pro-Palestinian march a month prior to the July 2024 French elections. A French news outlet's article confirmed that the rally shown took place in June 2024 -- not a month later, after national elections.
The claim appeared in a post on X, formerly Twitter, (archived here) where it was published on July 7, 2024. The caption read:
The victory rally for the new French government has more Palestinian flags than French flags.
This is what the X post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Jul 8 14:38:28 2024 UTC)
The X post contains a 39-second video that shows a crowd of people, many of them waving Palestinian flags, signs and banners while chanting and clapping.
Sky News Australia opened a July 8, 2024, report, posted on YouTube, with the video included in the X post that is the focus of this debunk, and claimed the video showed "rioting in the streets after the second round of voting in the French election," according to the video's description. The Sky News presenter also commented how there are "far more Palestinian flags being waved than French flags."
But the video was shot more than a month before the July French elections, and in a different and very specific political context: a protest of Israel's military actions in Gaza.
A reverse image search (archived here) of a still image from the X video led to an article from the French media outlet, Le Progrès. They published an article reporting on the pro-Palestinian demonstration. Lead Stories determined that by matching an individual holding a distinct hand-lettered sign while wearing a bright red jacket and a red and white hijab in both the photos Progrès published and in the X video. While the X video is of lower quality, black block letters with red-and-green lettering underneath is visible in both. An illustration of the matching details is provided below. Highlighting done by Lead Stories:
(Source: Le Progrès screenshot taken on Mon Jul 8 15:38:13 2024 UTC)
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Jul 8 15:39:20 2024 UTC)
A line in the first paragraph of the article, translated from French using Google Translate, tells readers when this event took place:
5,000 people according to the organizers --2,000 according to the prefecture -- made themselves heard for two hours, Place Bellecour, this Saturday afternoon ...
The article was dated June 1, 2024, which was a Saturday.
An advanced search on Twitter led to the first instance this video was posted on X, which was on June 1, 2024, at 15:18 UTC (archived here). The caption opened with, "France is witnessing an unprecedented wave of marches for Palestine." That post made no reference to French politics, saying only that marchers were showing "solidarity with Palestine and condemning the ongoing Israeli genocide."
More Lead Stories fact checks on claims related to France are here.
