The claims are spreading elsewhere on X And Facebook.
France’s left-wing alliance, the New Popular Front (NFP), made up of the far-left France Unbowed (LFI), the Communist Party, the Greens and the Socialist Party, won the most seats in the National Assembly in the July 7 parliamentary elections, defeating the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party of Marine Le Pen, which had been expected to take the lead.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s camp came second in early voting, with 164 seats after voters united to keep the anti-immigrant RN out of power. But with no group winning enough seats for a majority, parliament is in stalemate with difficult negotiations to a government coalition.
The NFPs success sparked outrage among the far-right online, with some social media users suggesting that France would come under “Islamic rule.” The rhetoric echoes criticism of the LFIs Jean-Luc Mélenchonwho has support expressed for the Muslim community.
French secularism laws are intended to keep the state neutral in religious matters, while guaranteeing citizens the right to practice their religion freely.and Some activists argue that the rules disproportionately exclude Muslim women from public life, And Mall voters concerns expressed that the RN would further restrict freedoms if it were to gain a majority.
However, the video shared online has nothing to do with the French elections.
Inverted image And keyword searches an identical YouTube video surfaced uploaded May 3, 2022 with a Russian title that says: “Eid al-Fitr 2022 in the Moscow Cathedral Mosque (1)” (archived here).
Turkish website Yeni Safak shared the same clip on May 4, 2022, saying it “shows thousands of Muslims performing Eid prayers on the streets of Moscow” (archived here).
Using Geolocation techniquesAFP found one of the buildings shown in the video are the Moscow Cathedral Mosque, which has a striking gold and turquoise exterior (archived hereThe building offers space for more than 10,000 believersbut the crowd often flows into the area streets.
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Muslims in the Russian capital gathered at the mosque on May 2, 2022 to celebrate the end of Ramadan.the Moscow Times reported (archived here).
AFP photographers captured similar images of Eid al-Fitr celebrations in front of the mosque in 2014 and 2023.
DMITRY SERBRIAKOVAFP
Alexander NEMENOVAFP
AFP has previously verified reports that misrepresented the images shared online. Polish, English And Serbian.
More AFP reporting on disinformation about French politics is available here.
