Video of an unrelated protest in Madrid is being misrepresented as a pro-Palestinian demonstration
FILE - Crowds with Spanish flags pack the central Puerta del Sol during a protest called by Spain’s Conservative Popular Party in Madrid, Spain, Sunday Nov.12, 2023. A video of the demonstration is being misrepresented online as a response to the latest Israel-Hamas war. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu Parra, File)
CLAIM: A video of wall-to-wall crowds in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol plaza shows a protest supporting Palestinians in the latest Israel-Hamas war.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The protest seen in the video has nothing to do with the Middle Eastern conflict. The footage was featured by a Spanish news outlet in coverage of a demonstration on Sunday opposing a deal that would grant amnesty to Catalan separatists in exchange for their support of a new coalition government in Spain.
THE FACTS: As the latest Israel-Hamas war rages on, some on social media are misrepresenting footage of the unrelated protest as a response to the fighting.
The video pans from left to right and back again, showing people crowded into Puerta del Sol, many of whom are holding Spanish flags, as an amplified voice can be heard echoing across the plaza.
It was shot from the top of La Real Casa de Correos, a former post office that is now a regional government building, as evidenced by distinctive metalwork atop the building’s clock tower that is visible in the footage.
“Spain today,” reads one post on X, formerly Twitter, that shared the video. “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free,” it continued, echoing a chant common at pro-Palestinian rallies. The post had received approximately 17,000 likes and more than 7,400 shares as of Monday.
Another post on X similarly claimed: “Human flood in Spain for Palestine.”
There have been protests in Spain supporting Palestinians in Gaza. But the video currently spreading online shows people demonstrating against a deal made by Spain’s acting prime minister with Catalan separatists.
The same video was featured by Spanish news outlet El Mundo in its coverage of protests against the amnesty deal.
Multiple time-specific details from the footage are also present in Associated Press photos of the same event. For example, a white van is parked next to a statue of Carlos III, an 18th century Spanish king. A metal Christmas tree in the process of being assembled in the plaza is missing the same chunk of beams. And the same tall black speakers poke out of the crowd.
The protest was called by Spain’s Conservative Popular Party in response to a deal the country’s Socialist Party struck with a Catalan separatist group that wants independence for the northeastern region of Catalonia. It was made in exchange for the separatists’ support in reelecting acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez following an inconclusive election in July.
Part of the deal includes amnesty for Carles Puigdemont, a Catalan leader who fled Spain after leading a failed illegal secession bid in 2017, and thousands of other secessionists. This has roused the ire of the conservative and far-right opposition parties that represent roughly half the country’s population, as the AP has reported. Many in the judiciary and police are also opposed.
A vote for Sánchez’s reelection will take place later this week, Spain’s Parliament speaker said Monday.
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.