Old video of pension reform protest in France goes viral with misleading claims

This video shows protests in France over pension reforms in 2023. It is not related to the recent unrest in France after PSG’s Champions League victory. 

Two people were killed and over 500 were taken into custody across France as Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) fans celebrated the club’s Champions League win.  France’s interior ministry said that 264 vehicles were set on fire, and 559 people were arrested, including 491 in Paris. Against this backdrop, a video of vehicles driving down a road with burning garbage bins on either side has gone viral on social media linking it to the recent unrest in Paris. 

Let’s check the truth

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Fact Check-

We started our investigation by running a Google reverse image search with the key frames of the video and whose result us to the same video uploaded on Twitter by France-based journalist on 21 March, 2023. This indicates that the viral video is not recent and unrelated to the recent unrest in France over the PSG’s win in the Champions League. 

Moving forward, we found the same video featured in a report by The Telegraph published on 21 March, 2023, on the protests in France over pension reforms. France was witnessing widespread protests against the pension reforms, which included raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 and increasing the number of years people must make contributions to receive a full state pension, in 2023. 

As per the report, “More than 100 people were arrested in Paris on Monday night as protesters burned some of the stewing piles of rubbish left by striking bin workers. It came as Emmanuel Macron prepared to break his silence on his move to ram through his pension reforms without a vote in parliament, which has further angered protesters.”

As per the Reuters report, “Protesters set piles of rubbish on fire in central Paris after President Emmanuel Macron’s government narrowly survived a no-confidence motion in parliament on Monday over a deeply unpopular pension reform”.

Taking account of all these evidences, we can understand that this is an old video of the protests over pension reforms in France and not related to the recent unrest in France after PSG’s Champions League victory. 

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the video to be Misleading. The video shows protests over pension reforms in France in 2023. It is not related to the recent unrest in France after PSG’s Champions League victory.