The intensity of spreading the anti-EU narrative on Facebook has been increasing in the recent couple of days. Kristijan Jandrioski was the first to publish the photo in which it is seen that in front of the headquarters of the factory for elevators SVECOM-PE, located in Vicenza, Italy, an unknown person removes the flag of the EU and puts the flag of China. As of the time of writing of this article, the photo has been shared almost 400 times.
Only couple of minutes later, the Facebook page “Мисија” (well-known to the F2N2 team on several occasions) published the same photo. As of the time of writing of this article, this post has been shared 240 times, which, together with the initial 400, is a serious number when it comes to the spreading of the narrative on the social media in North Macedonia.
The Facebook-page “Politichki cirkus” (also known to the F2N2 team) was not left out from the spreading of the narrative, so it shared the photo published by “Misija”. Among the others that have published or shared the photo are the following groups: Makedonska nacija, Ilinden-Makedonija, Da zhivee Makedonija, Makedonska zaednica, Makedonija razbudi se. Please see below a collage-photo of these posts.
A great deal of the Macedonian online media also were not immune to the spreading of this narrative. markukule.mk, expres.mk, shilomagazin.com.au, republika.mk, javno.mk, infomax.mk, pres24.mk, zase.mk are the media that reported that the Italians change the EU for the Chinese flag. The reaction of one unknown person that changed the flags in front of the factory cannot be considered as the official position of the state or of the whole nation, in this case – Italy. Additionally, a video has been shared, published by a certain Federico Cane, in which he also removes the EU flag, but in this case it is the Russian flag that is being put. Different flags, but the same goal – to show EU in negative light, and at the same time to glorify Russia and China and to laud each their action in regards to COVID-19.
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The EU reacted appropriately to the coronavirus, which can be concluded from the decision adopted on 19.03.2020. In the press-release it is precisely stated that the request for EU aid from Italy had arrived on the same day. The European Commission adopted the decision also on the same day, and the decision entered into force 48 hours later.
In times such as these, it is crucial to help, and not to spread propaganda. What we have analyzed in this article was a result and consequence of the aggressive propaganda that Russia and China were the only countries that helped Italy. As it can be seen above, this is absolutely not true.
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