"Albanian students were wrong to protest today in Skopje. Mickoski will solve this problem."
This is what acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti is alleged to have declared, according to a content published on Tuesday on Facebook, by the page called "Mërgata me LDK-në".
What is the truth?
There is no publication confirming that such a statement came from Kurti.
On Monday, Albanian students in North Macedonia protested in Skopje, demanding that the bar exam be in Albanian (see here).
The content covered in the text claims that Kurti commented on this protest.
As of the time of writing, it has received 180 likes and more than 160 comments, some of which suggest that the audience of this page is likely to perceive the claim as credible.
Hibrid.info has researched Kurti's Facebook page. From the day the protest was held until today, in the posts on the page, no publication has been found where he has commented on the protest held in Skopje (see here).
Also, the claim is not confirmed in the publications on the Kosovo Government's Facebook page, where the daily activities of the acting Prime Minister are usually published (see here).
Based on a Facebook post, where Kurti's page announced that he would be for an interview on Monday (May 18) evening on the show "Interaktiv", which is broadcast on "KTV", hibrid.info researched the video material of this interview (see here).
Hibrid.info found the video published on the official Youtube channel and checked it (see here). After the check, it was confirmed that Kurti did not comment on the protest in question even in this public appearance.
To research more about the claim, hibrid.info also searched through the search engine "Google", with the words "Albin Kurti protests in Skopje”. The search results, besides not showing any sources that would confirm the alleged statement, showed articles that confirm the fact that Kurti has not made any public statements on the matter in question (see here).
A Google search using the direct phrase as a search term did not confirm the statement (see here).
Analyze
The claim that Albin Kurti has stated that "Albanian students were wrong to protest today in Skopje" and that "Mickoski will solve this problem" is incorrect.
Searches on Google and YouTube, as well as verification of official social media accounts, found no evidence or publication confirming this statement.
Therefore, based on the evaluation methodology, hibrid.info assesses the content in question as "Fake News".
Reasoning:
The “Fake News” rating is given to informational content that is entirely fabricated or that contains factually incorrect claims or information. Content that is rated as fake news can be defined as having been created and distributed with the intent to misinform the public, i.e., to present a claim that is completely false as fact.