FALSE: “Barcelona has become the city with the highest crime rate in Spain and is an example of the failure of multiculturalism”

Fact-check, False

Jorge Buxadé, one of the leaders and the spokesperson of the extreme right-wing Spanish party Vox, claimed that “Barcelona has become the city with the highest crime rate in Spain and is an example of the failure of multiculturalism”. EUfactcheck looked into this claim and the source it was based on, and found out that…

Mostly False: “Only 1% of the EU budget EU is a share of the GDP of all countries. America has 33% of its budget in relation to GDP”

Fact-check, Mostly false

During an interview on Croatian Radiotelevision on the 10th of May, the Croatian EU Parliament candidate Katarina Peović claimed: “Only 1% of the budget of the European Union is a share of the GDP of all countries. America has 33% of its budget in relation to GDP.” By comparing the budget of the EU and…

Mostly True: EC “first institution in world” to ban TikTok on corporate phones and Von der Leyen “has done a lot” to regulate the platform’s services

Fact-check, Mostly true

On 29th of February 2024, the Romanian news website Știripesurse.ro published a news article, “Von der Leyen does not exclude banning TikTok in the EU if she is re-elected as head of the European”, in the context of the European elections. Von der Leyen, the candidate for the presidency of the European Commission and its…

Blog: Media and the pitfalls of a political dog whistle

Blogpost

Jarosław Kaczyński, former prime minister of Poland and current chairman of the leading government national-conservative party (PiS), caused a public outcry on social media and broke the news by stating Poland’s low birth rate is caused by women’s alcohol consumption. Kaczyński mentioned he was “joking a bit” but his statement spread like wildfire, increasing his…

False: “The EU has not fulfilled its role as a guarantor and sponsor of the Brussels Agreement”

Fact-check, False

Aleksandar Vulin, Serbia’s former minister of internal affairs and founder of the political party Movement of Socialists, partly blames the European Union for the escalating situation in Kosovo, which is connected to Kosovo’s  decision to change the license plate policy.  This claim turns out to be false. Serbian newspaper Novosti quotes Vulin’s claim, made on…

fact-check uncheckable

Uncheckable: “The biggest lie from this election is that nuclear energy will help to achieve the climate goals”.

Fact-check, Uncheckable

In the first national election debate, broadcasted by RTL4, leaders of political parties in the Netherlands were asked to take a stance on several important issues. One of the statements, about climate change was: “In order to achieve the climate goals the Netherlands must build new nuclear power plants”.  Conservative parties such as the VVD (liberal party), the PVV (nationalist party)…