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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Politics & government fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about politics & government. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

12,754 published reviews in this topic

NewtralPolitics & government

Decreto que prohíbe salir del domicilio después de las 15 horas

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The message asserted that the Spanish government had decreed a ban on leaving home after 15:00 until 31 March, with exceptions for authorised personnel and people needing medical care. It also claimed that work would be restricted to 08:00–14:00 and public transport would stop after 15:00. Newtral reports that these assertions were not among the official measures in the royal decree declaring the state of alarm: “A 24 de marzo, ninguna de las medidas que se comentan en el mensaje se encuentran entre las medidas y restricciones oficiales que recoge el Real decreto por el que se decreta el estado de alarma.” The review also checks whether later changes or announcements made the message accurate. It says the changes made four days after the state of alarm was decreed concerned the opening of certain shops and people’s movement, and that measures announced by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on 22 March concerned travel, care homes, municipal governments and the army. The review states that those changes and announcements did not correspond to the message’s claims.

NewtralPolitics & government

El Gobierno va a decretar el estado de excepción según un audio viral

Publisher’s rating: Falso

Newtral examined a viral voice message speculating that Pedro Sánchez’s Government would impose a state of exception “el lunes o martes,” announce it only 24 hours beforehand and keep it in force for “40 o 50 días.” The review says the audio reached the publication through its WhatsApp verification service and social-media accounts. It reports that the Ministry of Defence told Newtral: “Es un bulo,” and that no government leader had mentioned a state of exception. The review also contrasts the recording with Sánchez’s announcement that Sunday: he would ask Congress to extend the state of alarm by 15 days. The review explains that the audio’s proposed process and timeline did not fit the law. It says approval of a state of exception rests with Congress, not the Government alone, making approval within 24 hours very difficult. It also states that the initial period permitted by law is at most 30 days, with any extension requiring congressional approval—not the 40 or 50 days asserted in the audio. The article distinguishes this from the state of alarm then in force: the Government had initially imposed that measure for up to 15 days and needed parliamentary support to extend it. Thus the message’s forecast of an imminent, government-decreed state of exception did not match either the reported official position or the legal approval process described in the review.

NewtralPolitics & government

El Rey plagia su discurso por la crisis del COVID19 de un libro

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim arose from a montage pairing a passage presented as coming from a book with text attributed to King Felipe VI, implying that he had plagiarized a speech about the COVID-19 crisis. Newtral identifies the book image as a page from *Las Palmeras*, by Jimina Sabadú—not *Palmeras en la Nieve*, by Luz Gabás, as the montage claimed. The article says Sabadú’s book was published in 2020 and describes a fictional outbreak in which a king gives a speech. The key chronology reverses the apparent direction of copying. The matching passage was not from a COVID-era address: it came from Felipe VI’s speech on October 3, 2017, which the article places two days after the Catalan referendum. The book used that real speech, more than two years after it was delivered. Newtral also says the image labeled “Mensaje de Su Majestad El Rey” was not from the king’s speech that Wednesday about the coronavirus emergency; it showed the 2017 address instead. The article reports that Sabadú posted that she had put the king giving a speech about an outbreak in her book, a remark that helped the montage spread. It then describes her clarification: she was referring to similarities between the speeches, not claiming that the king copied her. The article also addresses a related claim about Pedro Sánchez: it says the same passage was from Felipe VI’s 2017 speech and that Sánchez had not delivered that speech. Thus, the evidence described in the review points to a real earlier speech reused in fiction, rather than the king copying a book for his COVID-19 address.

Pagella PoliticaPolitics & government

«Quasi tutti i Paesi europei, almeno quelli più importanti, hanno preso a modello le nostre misure»

Publisher’s rating: C'eri quasi

Roberto Speranza, Italy’s health minister, said on 17 March 2020 that “almost all” the more important European countries had taken Italy’s measures as a model for responding to the new coronavirus. The review compared the measures in Italy with those then adopted by four other major European countries: Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. It describes the Italian measures as including strong nationwide restrictions on personal movement and closure of most shops, with exceptions for essential businesses. The review says its comparison drew on the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control’s figures available on 18 March to identify the five most affected countries; the claim itself was assessed by examining the measures reported for the four countries other than Italy. [S1: “al 18 marzo 2020 i cinque Paesi europei più colpiti dall’epidemia del nuovo coronavirus erano: l’Italia (31.506 casi e 2.505 morti), la Spagna (11.178 casi e 491 morti), la Francia (7.730 casi e 175 morti), la Germania (7.156 casi e 13 morti) e il Regno Unito (1.950 casi e 60 morti).”] [S1: “Queste misure, lo ricordiamo, tra le altre cose prevedono su tutto il territorio nazionale una forte limitazione degli spostamenti personali (permessi solo per motivi di lavoro, necessità e salute) e la chiusura di tutti gli esercizi commerciali, fatta eccezione per i supermercati, le farmacie e altre attività più specifiche (come i tabaccai).”] The evidence was strongest for Spain and France. Spain’s 14 March decree restricted travel to specified purposes and closed schools, bars, restaurants and many other venues. France announced movement restrictions beginning on 17 March, required an Italian-style self-certification form for permitted outings and closed non-essential shops, restaurants and cultural venues. The review therefore found substantial similarities with Italy in both countries. [S1: “Come in Italia, i cittadini spagnoli possono spostarsi solo per motivi di necessità lavorativa o di salute, per poter rientrare nel proprio domicilio o per acquistare prodotti alimentari, farmaceutici o di prima necessità.”] [S1: “Come in Italia, anche in Francia si può uscire di casa solo per motivi di lavoro e di salute, o per fare acquisti di prima necessità, muniti di un modulo di autocertificazione (qui scaricabile) del tutto simile a quello italiano.”] The qualification is that the four countries had not adopted identical measures. Germany’s restrictions were described as similar but less stringent, with movement not yet restricted as in Spain and France and some decisions left to the Länder. The United Kingdom had taken fewer measures: the government recommended staying home in some circumstances and discouraged certain outings, but had not closed most businesses. Thus the review’s conclusion supports Speranza’s comparison as broadly, but not uniformly, accurate; the differences limit the force of the phrase “almost all” and the suggestion that the measures were simply the same. [S1: “simili a quelle italiane, ma meno restrittive”] [S1: “il Regno Unito di Boris Johnson – per ora – ha invitato la popolazione britannica a evitare il contatto sociale, non chiudendo però la maggior parte delle attività come avvenuto negli altri Paesi.”]

FACTLYPolitics & government

Office Memorandum of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare declaring holidays

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned an alleged Office Memorandum, dated 13 March 2020, stating that the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare had declared holidays in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Sikkim from 14 to 21 March to curb COVID-19. FACTLY’s review says that the ministry had not declared those holidays and describes the memorandum as fake. The review reports that it checked the ministry’s Twitter account for evidence that the ministry had issued such a memorandum and found a tweet about it. The excerpt does not reproduce the tweet, so it does not allow independent examination of its wording; the review’s stated conclusion is nevertheless explicit: the ministry had not issued an order declaring holidays in those states. The review also distinguishes that alleged ministry-wide holiday order from real, narrower announcements by three of the states. It reports school, college and educational-institution closures in urban Maharashtra through 31 March, Uttar Pradesh through 22 March, and Gujarat through 28 March. Those closures do not establish that the ministry declared holidays in the four states, as the circulating document claimed.

NewtralPolitics & government

Vídeo subtitulado de Irene Montero tosiendo en la manifestación del 8-M

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The review examines a video circulating after Equality Minister Irene Montero tested positive for coronavirus. Its subtitles presented her as coughing on Boti García, director of sexual and LGTBI diversity, during the 8 March feminist march, and as replying that nothing was wrong. The review says the video was manipulated and describes how its subtitles supplied a misleading account of the exchange. According to the review, Montero and García were actually talking about a T-shirt García had brought. Montero showed her the one she was wearing and said, “Pero me la puedo poner encima” (“But I can put it on over this one”). The review also points to a follow-up video posted on Twitter by a member of Montero’s team and reports that both women denied the claims on their Twitter accounts. This evidence addresses the alleged coughing directly: the review identifies the exchange as being about clothing, not coughing or symptoms.

NewtralPolitics & government

EFE publica un tweet en el que anuncia que el Gobierno impondrá multas de 300.000€ a las personas que cambien de CCAA

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned an image circulating on Twitter and WhatsApp that appeared to show an EFE tweet announcing €300,000 fines for people who changed autonomous communities during the coronavirus state of alarm. Newtral’s review says EFE had not published that tweet; the claim was not an actual EFE announcement. The review describes two checks: it found no trace on Twitter of EFE publishing the message, and, after contacting EFE, reports that the agency confirmed it was fake and said it had never reported such a measure. It also notes that the measures the Government announced on Saturday did not include the proposed fines. Taken together, the review’s account contradicts the image’s attribution to EFE and its assertion that the fines had been announced.