On March 17, 2024, Instagram account @war_history uploaded a screenshot of a news article claiming Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that Italy has an "ancestral right" to Europe, North Africa and Western Asia (archived here).
The article was purportedly published on Feb. 5, 2024, and included an image of the Italian leader wearing ancient Roman clothing.
The headline read: "PM Meloni claims Italy's ancestral right to all of Europe, North Africa & Western Asia in rare interview with Tucker Carlson."
Other examples of the claim were found on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit.
Using a reverse-image search tool, the earliest iteration Snopes found of the screenshot online was published in a subreddit called Rough Roman Memes on Feb. 9, 2024.
This version purportedly indicated the screenshot came from a Reuters news article and instead showed Meloni wearing normal clothes. It also contained additional text beneath the featured image, which read:
'So if you don't mind I will take only 30 seconds or one minute of your time for giving you a little historical background and to explain why the French aren't real,' Meloni said, before embarking on a 30 minute lecture.
Snopes contacted the user who uploaded the meme for comment and will update this post if we hear back.
The screenshot was in fact taken from a real Reuters news article. However, it was clearly edited and is therefore fake. Reuters confirmed via an email to Snopes that the story was not legitimate.
We knew it was an edited version of a real article because of several similarities between the manipulated screengrab and the legitimate Reuters article.
Firstly, the Reuters article was published at the exact same time — Feb. 5, 2024, at 5:47 a.m. PST — as the edited screenshot claiming the fake Meloni headline was published.
Secondly, the image in the legitimate article also matched the photo used in the manipulated screengrab.
Lastly, we could tell it was edited due to the font in the manipulated screengrab not matching the font used in Reuters headlines.
Snopes also found no evidence of Meloni making such comments in an interview with Carlson.
Comments below the edited screenshot, which was posted in a subreddit that hosts memes about the Romans, suggested it was a joke based on Carlson's real interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which premiered on Feb. 8, 2024, and saw the leader speak in depth about Russia's imperial history.
Around 2 1/2 minutes into the interview, Putin told Carlson: "So if you don't mind, I will take only 30 seconds or one minute to give you a short reference to history for giving you a little historical background."
This is nearly identical to the language used in the Reddit post beneath the edited screenshot.