00:00No, J.D. Vance did not claim Romania is a French colony.
00:06A social media post shared by far-right Romanian MEP Diana Sosioca claims that U.S. Vice President
00:13J.D. Vance called on Romanians to free themselves from French rule through a revolution.
00:19The post features what seems to be a news article from reputable news platform Europa Libera,
00:24the Romanian branch of Radio Free Europe, with a picture of Vance making a speech.
00:29It reports that J.D. Vance claimed Romania is no longer a democratic country, but instead a French
00:34colony. Sosioca's message accompanying the post reads, the Americans have given the green light.
00:40Only a revolution can save what was once Romania. However, neither Vance nor any other U.S. public
00:45official suggested in any statement that Romania is a French colony. The article in the post poorly
00:51imitates the Europa Libera website. The font, for one, is completely different. Meanwhile,
00:56it refers to Vance as a senator and not as the U.S. Vice President. The director of Europa Libera
01:02confirmed to Euroverify that the story and the quotes attributed to Vance are false and that
01:07Europa Libera did not publish it. She did note Vance had been critical of the Romanian authorities
01:12at the Munich Security Conference in February this year, which may have inspired the false
01:17information. He claimed that Romania cancelled the first round of November 2024 presidential elections
01:23based on what he called shaky suspicions of an intelligence service. But again, Vance did not
01:29mention France's possible role as a colonizer, either in Romania or in any other country. This is
01:34just one example of a fake news report for which a clone of sorts is made of an established news
01:39website to spread fake news. Europa Libera's director told Euroverify that more generally,
01:45the Romanian online environment is being flooded with pro-Russian anti-Western attacks. She added that
01:51since 2024, these attacks are focused mainly against France and President Macron.
