No, European Commission Prez Did Not Call Indian Voters ‘Stupid’

A viral photo claimed that President of European Commission called Indian voters ‘stupid’.

(Photo Altered by The Quint)

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CLAIM

A viral post with a photo of the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, claims he said, “World’s most stupid voters live in India, who vote for people lobbying for illegal intruders” to a publication named European Times.

The photo was posted on Facebook on 28 October by a page called ‘BJP 4 All’ and has been shared by many on social media since then.

TRUE OR FALSE?

The Facebook post with the picture of the European Commission president demeaning Indian voters is false.

A fact-check has revealed there is no publication called European Times in circulation. However a magazine with a similar name, The European Times, is published and distributed in the UK, France and Germany among other European countries. It is not published or distributed in India, as per their website, and has promotional content. The magazine last published content related to India in 2017 and does not quote Juncker in that article.

Second, the photo of the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that has been used on the post shared by ‘BJP 4 All’ is a photo clicked by Reuters photojournalist Aris Oikonomou on 30 August 2018 during a meeting in Geneva, Belgium.

The photo had first appeared on 30 August 2018, with the report, ‘EU will respond in kind if US imposes car tariffs: Juncker’.

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