A mistranslated video of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is viral online with a false claim that she recently congratulated Indian Hindus for the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.
BOOM found that the claims are false and an accurate translation of the video shows Meloni thanking people for wishing her on her birthday.
The Ram Temple in Ayodhya was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22, 2024 in the presence of Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's Chief Mohan Bhagwat. While the event was revered by Hindus in India and across the globe, it also sparked communal clashes and vandalism, in a Mumbai suburb which led to the arrests of 13 people. Maharashtra's CM Devendra Fadnavis responded to the incident and said, "Anyone trying to disrupt law and order in the state will not be tolerated."
The 15-second video shows Meloni speaking in Italian and is being shared with a purported translation of her statement. A caption on X reads, "Italian PM Giorgia Meloni Message to Hindus for Ram Mandir #RamMandirPranPratishta. #Translation : Best wishes to the Hindus in India and around the world on the Pran Pratistha ceremony. By restoring your prestige after hundreds of years of struggle, you have set an example for the world. Lots of love."
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
The post is also circulating on Facebook with similar captions.
Click here to view the post.
FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the viral claims are false, a translation of Meloni's video shows that she was thanking social media users for wishing her on her birthday.
We first ran an audio recording of Meloni's viral video on Google Translate and found that it roughly translated to, "Thank you all for the birthday wishes you sent me privately with posts on social media, so much encouragement which I will treasure. You are my strength. I love you."
We then used Italian keywords to look for the original video and found this Youtube video shared on January 15, 2024 titled 'Meloni turns 47 and thanks for the good wishes "You are my strength"'
(Original text in Italian: 'Meloni compie 47 anni e ringrazia per gli auguri "Siete la mia forza"')
This video matched the viral video and the description carried her exact words, which can be translated to English as, "Thank you all for the birthday wishes you sent me privately, with the posts on social media, a lot of encouragement which I will treasure, you are my strength, I love you"
The original video was credited to Meloni's X profile.
We then scanned Meloni's X profile and found that she had shared this video on January 15 with the caption, "Thank you. You are my strength!"
(Original text in Italian: "Grazie. Siete la mia forza!")
There is no mention of the Ram Temple in this video by Meloni. We also looked for news reports about Meloni issuing a statement for the Ram Temple, but did not find any results.