Polish rally video resurfaces as fake French protest footage

An old video of a march in Warsaw to mark Poland's independence day has resurfaced online, with social media users falsely claiming that it depicts mass protests in Paris against the French government.

One post, for example, says that 250,000 French people took to the streets against the government's cuts to healthcare spending and public holidays.

Before being ousted in a no-confidence vote, France's (now former) Prime Minister François Bayrou had planned a raft of budget cuts, including the removal of two public holidays, to try to slash France's €3 trillion debt.

On 10 September, mass protests broke out in France as part of the "Bloquons Tout" (Block Everything) movement, in response to Bayrou's plans and wider discontent with President Emmanuel Macron's government.

New Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has already cast the public holiday plan aside, but other protests have continued despite the collapse of Bayrou's government. Many see the appointment of Lecornu, former defence minister and long-time Macron ally, as a case of more of the same.

However, the video in question doesn't depict any of these demonstrations, and it wasn't even filmed in France.

Reference to Nepal protests

A reverse image search of stills from the video shows us that it actually portrays a large rally marking Poland's independence day in 2017.

We can see that it first emerged online on 12 November of that year, the day after Poland's independence day on 11 November.

There are also visual clues within the video: it shows people flying the red and white Polish flag, and the signs for retailers H&M, C&A and TK MAXX also match those on a central Warsaw roundabout, according to pictures from Google Maps.

Additionally, you can hear the Polish national anthem being played in the background.

The post that misinterprets the video also refers to protests in Nepal, which occurred at the same time as the protests in France, but had nothing to do with them.

The Nepalese protests, also known as the "Gen Z protests" due to the demographics of the majority of the protesters, were sparked by a nationwide ban on numerous social media platforms. They also more widely targeted corruption by government officials and alleged misuse of public funds.

The protests managed to bring down the government but were also violent, with 72 people killed.

The video of the Polish rally was previously also taken out of context in November 2024, with false captions on X saying that it showed huge protests against migrants and declaring Poland a Christian country.

Fact-checkers debunked it at the time, stating that while far-right and anti-immigration groups did attend the march, others seeking tolerance and inclusion were also present.