By Swasti Chatterjee
An old video showing a group of people seated at an outdoor cafe with glasses of wine while a fire lit by protestors rages in a street in the background in France, is being falsely linked to the ongoing riots in the country.
The video shows visuals of people sitting at an outdoor cafe and drinking wine, with fire burning in the background and a huddle by protesters. The video has been shared with the caption, "A glass of wine at a nice café while watching Paris burning ; French joie de vivre at its best ."
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France witnessed massive protest and a riot like situation after Nahel M, a teenager of Algerian descent, was shot dead by a police officer at a traffic stop in Nanterre, a Parisian suburb home to immigrants on June 27, 2023. Nahel was driving a rental car, when he was shot at. According to reports President Emmanuel Macron flooded the streets with police personnel in an effort to contain the rioters and has urged parents to keep the young rioters at home.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a related keyword search and found the same video on abc News published on March 26, 2023 with the headline, French diners enjoy wine as fire lit by protesters burns nearby. The description with the video reads, Diners sitting outside at a café in the French city of Bordeaux enjoyed their wine not far from the glow of a raging fire lit by demonstrators protesting divisive pension reforms.
The same video was published by Daily Mail on March 26, 2023. Diners were captured enjoying wine at Place de la Victoire as fires raged in the Bordeaux streets.
France witnessed massive protests in March, this year, after President Macron's pension reforms were announced. The protestors opposed the bill that raised the retirement age from 62 to 64. Police and demonstrators fought across the country. The protests began in January this year, with 1.28 million protesting and marching across the country, as counted on March 7. Macron hadsigned the documents enacting the reforms into law in April.
According to a Fact Check by The Local, France, the video was posted first by an activist Twitter account "@ledecaledu25" on March 23. In a tweet the account had corroborated that the video was taken on Thursday, March 23, 2023 by a customer at the bar Saint-Aubin in Bordeaux and not in Paris.
The Local also reached out to the manager of Saint Aubin bar and restaurant which clarified that the fire had taken place on the square on March 23 night. The manager was quoted as saying, "Yes (the fire) happened. We were not affected though, and authorities came to deal with it. We had no problems."
