Wrote: Etrit Rexhepi
Video footage is being released showing Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, sitting with Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, on a train traveling from Poland to Ukraine.
The video showing Macron quickly pulling a white object from the table with his right hand, then moving it to his left hand and under the table, was published by a Facebook page called "The Reis", claiming that it is a bag of cocaine, which the French president is seen hiding.
The website "The Reis" published two videos on May 11, making this claim. video The first captures the moment up close and is short in duration, compared to the second video, which has a wider scope of view.
But, hibrid.info has found that the claim is unfounded.
Hibrid.info has researched through the automated search program, "InVID" and found that the video has been published on almost all social media (Facebook, "X", Instagram, Telegram, Reddit, etc.) by various publishers, with this claim (see here).
Which means that the claim was not initially published in Albanian.
By searching through the Google search engine, hibrid.info came across an article published in the India-based media outlet, "Business-Standard", which stated that according to French media outlets such as Libération and the news agencies AFP and Associated Press, the object that was claimed to be cocaine hidden by President Macron was actually just a handkerchief rolled into a ball and placed on the table (see here).
Hibrid.info searched the French media mentioned and found an article addressing this claim, from “liberation.fr”, which refuted the claim (see here).
The article titled "No, Emmanuel Macron did not hide the cocaine he took with Friedrich Merz and Keir Starmer on the train to Kiev.” uses high-quality photos and videos, like those taken by news agencies AFP or AP, to prove that the mysterious bag of white powder is actually a handkerchief rolled up into a ball that was on the table before Keir Starmer and the cameras arrived in the booth, where Macron and Merz were already present.
Also, on the official account of the French presidency on "X", a post was found yesterday (May 11), clarifying the situation and denying the claim in question (see here).
Analyze
The claim that French President Emmanuel Macron was seen hiding a bag of cocaine during a train trip to Ukraine is untrue.
The footage shows that the object in question was a white handkerchief rolled into a ball, and not a narcotic substance.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses the content as "Manipulation of facts".
rationale
“Factual manipulation” is a rating given to informational content that uses facts known to be accurate but interprets them in a distorted manner. These reports typically use accurate information to draw incorrect conclusions or claims, thereby misleading consumers of media content about the actual meaning of the facts presented.