The controversy surrounding India's detention centres has become a subject of debate in the international community too. But the European Commission (EC) got caught in the crossfire, without any reason. A Facebook post attributing a quote to former European Commission (EC) president Jean-Claude Juncker has gone viral on social media.

The claim

According to the quote in the post, which is in Hindi, the former EC chief has labelled Indians as the "world's most foolish voters". Facebook user Yogendra Bahadur Sagar Meerjapuree posted a photograph of Jean-Claude Juncker along with a quote saying: "The world's most foolish voters are from India. They vote for political leaders who allow illegal immigrants to enter the country." The post mentions the European Times as the source of the quote.

The archived version of the post can be seen here.

India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the post to be misleading. We searched for Juncker's quote on Indian voters but couldn't find anything. We ran a keyword search and found that the post had been circulating on social media for the last few years.

We found a similar quote of Juncker that he had made on May 22. In an interview with CNN, Juncker lashed out at "stupid nationalists" on the eve of European elections. The CNN report said, "Some polls project that populists may become the most powerful group in parliament following this week's elections in all 28 EU nations, resulting in a lasting impact on the future of the bloc and the continent at large. 'These populist, nationalists, stupid nationalists, they are in love with their own countries,' Juncker told CNN in his Brussels office."

We also scanned Juncker’s Twitter handle to find whether he has tweeted something like this but we couldn't find any such post.

Old image

Upon reverse-searching the photo of Juncker, we found that it was taken by Aris Oikonomou, a Reuters photographer on August 30, 2018. It was taken when Juncker was chairing the Annual Seminar of the European Commission College in Genval, Belgium.

Truth behind European Times

European Times is mentioned as the source of Juncker's quote. When we searched for the media organisation in Europe by the same name, we found one. In the About section of its Facebook page, the outlet describes itself as an "independent media organisation" and "promotional magazine". It reads, "The European Times works in partnerships with different governmental institutions worldwide."

After checking multiple sources, it can be said that this viral quote was falsely attributed to former EC president Jean-Claude Juncker.

Earlier Quint debunked a similar claim in 2018.

INDIA TODAY FACT CHECK





Claim Former European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said the world's most foolish voters are from India. Conclusion The former EC president never made this statement. JHOOTH BOLE KAUVA KAATE The number of crows determines the intensity of the lie. 1 Crow: Half True

2 Crows: Mostly lies

3 Crows: Absolutely false