Mostly true: “Lockdown in Slovenia is one of the longest in Europe and a thorough one”

On 7 December 2020, Slovenian Minister of Economic Development and Technology Zdravko Počivalšek made a statement about the second lockdown in Slovenia. In television programme Studio City he said that generally speaking Slovenia has had one of the longest “lockdowns” in Europe. He also stated Slovenia had a thorough system that, in his opinion, did…

fact checking

Mostly false: “Dutch finance minister claims healthcare costs exceed 100 billion euros. He is off by 30 billion.”

On 28 February the Dutch minister of finance and leader of the Christian democrat party CDA, Wopke Hoekstra, participated in an election debate broadcast by RTL. During this debate, he stated that the costs of Dutch healthcare exceed 100 billion euros. In a response on Twitter, member of Parliament Fleur Agema, number 2 on the…

UNCHECKABLE: “Russian workers are twice less productive than Italian ones”

On November 10, 2020, at 20:28 the Internet version of the Russian edition of “Nezavisimaya Gazeta” published an article with the headline: “To Catch up with Italy Russia has to Fire Half of its Workers”. Anastasia Bashkatova, Deputy Head of the Economics Department of “Nezavisimaya Gazeta” quoted First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov saying that…

True: “Only 4% of Dutch nature reserves are in good condition and the number of wild animals has halved since 1990”

“Only four per cent of Dutch nature reserves are in good condition. The number of wild animals has halved since 1990,” states Dutch political party D66 in its election programme for 2021. With these statements, D66 tries to convince Dutch citizens to support the party in the upcoming national elections. D66 promises to create more…

Mostly true: “The Netherlands has one of the largest social housing sectors in Europe but the waiting list for social housing averages nine years”

Dutch political party VVD states in its current election programme (2021) that the Netherlands has one of the largest social rental sectors in Europe but that the waiting lists for social housing average nine years. The party promises to make social housing more available to people with smaller incomes by stimulating richer people to move…

Mostly true: “Tourists in Barcelona will not be able to rent an apartment”

Since the 26 of August, 2020, in Barcelona in the north-east of Spain, there is a ban, according to which Barcelona citizens cannot offer tourists accommodation in their apartments. The same day polish newspaper claimed that “Tourists in Barcelona will not be able to rent an apartment”, but this interpretation isn’t completely true.  On August 26th, the Autonomous Government of…

Uncheckable: In Brussels, the trade fair for live goods began. Children are put up for sale

Wpolitce.pl – a popular Polish right-wing news portal and TVP Info, a state news channel, report on alleged human trafficking taking place at Men Having Babies conference in Brussels. Misconception caused by terminology used in an article Due to the conservative predilection of the reporter – Grzegorz Górny – an article gains a tabloid tint.…

False: Croatian filmmaker Šulina won the “enviable” Venice Film Festival Golden Lion award

News about a Croatian amateur film director Mr Mario Šulina receiving the Golden Lion award for his film “Adam” stirred controversy in Croatia. In December 2020 commercial TV channel RTL published on its webpage RTL.hr an article with the following title: ”’Golden Lion’ went to Đakovo this year: Director Šulina in the interview for RTL.hr…

True: “Emissions of bestselling plug-in hybrid cars are higher than advertised”

On the November 23 2020 Focus Association for Sustainable Development tweeted that: “Tests made by the Transport and Environment campaign group show that emissions of the three bestselling plug-in hybrid cars are 28–89% higher than advertised.” We rate it as true. In the tweet from the official account of Focus Association for Sustainable Development, the…