The King of Denmark, Frederik X, waves a Palestinian flag from a balcony in support of a protest in Copenhagen.
This isn’t correct. The man pictured in the video is not the Danish monarch. It actually shows a protest against the Eurovision song contest in Sweden, not Denmark.
A video being shared widely online falsely claims to show the new King of Denmark waving a Palestinian flag in support of a demonstration in Copenhagen.
In the clip, which is circulating on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), a man on a balcony can be seen holding the Palestinian flag and waving, while pro-Palestine protesters gather in the street.
A caption on Facebook also widely shared alongside the video says: “The King of Denmark, King Frederik X, waves the Palestinian flag from a balcony as he greets hundreds of protesters demonstrating in Copenhagen in solidarity with the people of Palestine.”
However, the man pictured in the footage is not the Danish monarch, and the video was actually filmed in Malmö, Sweden.
Another video, which is captioned as being of a protest in Malmö against Israel’s participation in the Eurovision song contest on 9 May, shows a different angle of the same man on a balcony.
An inscription on the building next door, which is visible in that video, says (in Swedish), Malmö High School for Girls. Both buildings are visible on Google Street View with an address in Malmö.
King Frederik X did visit Sweden on 6-7 May, but the visit ended before these protests took place.
The 55-year-old ascended to the throne of Denmark on 14 January 2024 following the abdication of his mother, Queen Margrethe II.
Full Fact has checked many misleading and miscaptioned videos relating to Israel and Gaza, including a video of a riot in 2009 in Malmö which was claimed to show Eurovision protests, and footage of a girl with epilepsy which was falsely linked to the current conflict.
It’s important to consider whether something could be misinformation before sharing it. Our guides to spotting misleading images and videos can help you do this.
Image courtesy of Aarhus Universitet
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because the man pictured in the video is not the Danish monarch, and it was filmed in Malmö, Sweden.
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