No, This Isn’t the Italian President Crying Over COVID-19 Deaths
The image is of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who broke down at a thanksgiving service in December 2019.
CLAIM
Italy remains one of the worst-affected countries by the coronavirus outbreak with over 59,000 infections and 5,476 confirmed deaths (highest for any country). Amid this, a viral image of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is being circulated on the internet with a claim that it shows the President of Italy crying because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Quint also received a query regarding the image on our WhatsApp helpline number.
TRUE OR FALSE?
False.
Firstly, the man in the picture, Jair Bolsonaro, is not the President of Italy but that of Brazil. Further, the image is not recent and was taken at the thanksgiving speech at the Palacio do Planalto in December 2019.
WHAT WE FOUND
A Google keyword search using terms “Jair Bolsonaro crying” directed us to a report by Brazilian publication Poder 360. According to the report, “the president cried in an evangelical Thanksgiving service at the Planalto Palace when he remembered the knife attack he suffered in Juiz de Fora (MG), during the 2018 election campaign.”
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