Welcome to Disinfo Bulletin, your daily update from the EDMO network. Today's most relevant stories: 

🇸🇰 Disinformation about Fico’s shooting in Slovakia grows. After accusing the main opposition party of endorsing the attempted killing, false stories about the attack on PM Robert Fico continue to grow in Slovakia. In recent days, unproven claims have been made that the shooter is tied to the Progressive Slovakia party (linking him also to the EU and the LGBTQ+ movement), that he is a former member of the communist state’s intelligence service, or suggested that his violent act was concerted with other people, rather than the violence of a “lone wolf”, as local authorities currently described him.

At the same time, the attacker’s wife was said to be a Ukrainian refugee, even if police denied her alleged Ukrainian origin at a press conference. Aside from these false stories, observers say that the already toxic Slovakian political climate has worsened after the assassination attempt.


🇮🇷 🛩️ Early warning - Iranian President Raisi’s helicopter crash. Following the reported death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on May 20, disinformation is likely to exploit this event. False narratives may emerge, connecting the crash to the broader Middle Eastern conflict without proof, inciting fears of escalation and fostering conspiracy theories. Preliminary findings from the EDMO Monthly Brief, which will be published tomorrow, show that disinformation regarding the crisis in the region tripled in April, mainly due to false stories exaggerating the scale of the attacks exchanged between Israel and Iran itself. This incident could further fuel the dissemination of misleading content.


🇵🇱 🚓 🔥 The false story that Germany is occupying Poland. After the already flagged false story alleging that Polish authorities were conceding lands to Germany, another false claim in Poland suggests similar attempts by the German neighbors. Recently, a photo of a “German police car” (in fact, part of a joint German-Polish police unit) circulated along with claims saying that “the German occupation has returned” or “German police are officially maintaining order” in Poland.

At the same time, other disinformation content circulated in the country in recent days alleged that “the European Commission confirmed that the Polish government established the superiority of EU law over Polish law”, so that “Poland will no longer exist”. Other unproven claims even suggested that recent fires in the country were deliberately started to distract attention from these issues.


🔎🇪🇺 V4 citizens’ concerns about election interference. More than 1/3 of the population of all the four Visegrad Group countries (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary) consider attempts by foreign actors to influence European elections a major issue, according to CEDMO’s latest brief. Czech respondents showed the highest concern, reflecting lower institutional trust compared to other European nations. Poles expressed the highest intent to vote, with 78% planning to participate in the upcoming elections. Read more in this CEDMO’s special brief: More than a third of the citizens of the V4 countries perceive foreign attempts to influence European elections as a big problem.

If you have suggestions, comments or requests about this newsletter, you can write to edmo.tfeu2024@eui.eu

What is a “disinformation narrative”? Please find here a short methodological note about the definition used by the EDMO fact-checking network.

The Disinfo Bulletin gathers material from the inputs of the EDMO fact-checking network, as well as a recently launched public database from the EFCSN network (Elections 24 Check), and the various national EDMO hubs, including community initiatives and insights from individual fact-checking organizations.