Emmanuel Macron “resigns”: beware of this parody on social networks

For several hours, a parody video shared on social networks has been making noise. In this 3-minute extract, a journalist from BFM TV who is then in duplex announces the resignation of the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron. “The editorial staff has been invaded by the demonstrators, we are a few journalists who have joined the movement (…) We are in front of the gates of the Palace of Versailles, very close to Paris where the executive has taken refuge under high police protection “, says the supposed journalist.

Several banners from the continuous news channel support the latter’s words, including “Macron renounces power under public pressure” then “Macron helped in his escape by the big industrialists”. In the rest of this video, the Head of State announces his resignation live from the hemicycle. “The Constitution allows the President of the Republic to speak before the parliament convened for this purpose in congress. There are times when this possibility makes a necessity. These are the hours we live in,” said Emmanuel Macron.

Images of angry protesters are also revealed, alongside his supposed resignation speech. “What is asked of us by the people is to give up, you and me”, concluded then the husband of Brigitte Macron. The latter would have decided to relinquish power “following popular pressure”, comments the journalist.

As the AFP Factual site reminded us, this is indeed a parody video. Indeed, this video is an edit from a speech by Emmanuel Macron in which sentences were drawn and then arranged in a different order. The goal is to make believe in a real speech announcing his resignation. A realistic editing also confirmed by the InVID-WeVerify tool. Our colleagues then brought to light that it was indeed an old speech before the congress, dating from July 2017. Another incriminating element: the BFM TV channel confirmed to AFP that it was was indeed a fake live. “The first answer is that the design of this video is not at all that of the channel: the BFMTV logo was changed in 2016 and the font of the banners is not the same. Moreover, this journalist does not does not belong to our editorial staff”, indicated the editorial staff.

Finally, the most attentive will notice that the live time remains blocked throughout the video at 6:33 p.m. This is not the first time that such a video has aroused such reactions. Nevertheless, Internet users now seem more seasoned in order to thwart the traps of fake news, as evidenced by the comments on TikTok. “It’s a very good montage! Think that this would already be on all the channels”, underlined a user.