Viral photo of young Angela Merkel is real but the future 'world leaders' with her are not

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Viral photo of young Angela Merkel is real but the future 'world leaders' with her are not  A viral picture falsely purports to show former German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a teenager, alongside other world leaders including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.  READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/07/30/photo-of-young-angela-merkel-with-future-world-leaders-goes-viral-but-its-fake  Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

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00:00No, these European leaders were not snapped together in their teens.

00:08According to social media users, a picture circulating online allegedly shows former

00:13German Chancellor Angela Merkel alongside former British Prime Minister Theresa May

00:17and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

00:20The text on the photo alleges that the three childhood friends grew up together before

00:24going on to govern separate countries.

00:27The post has garnered more than 725,000 views recently after being shared on X and regularly

00:32resurfaces online.

00:34The post states that one of the teenagers in the photo is von der Leyen, but the modern

00:38day picture below actually shows former Lithuanian president Dalia Garibalskite.

00:43Although von der Leyen was a member of Mrs Merkel's cabinet, she has never led a country contrary

00:47to the text on the photograph.

00:49As for the picture itself, by conducting a reverse image search, Euroverify traced it to an article

00:54published by Time magazine in 2015.

00:57Featuring childhood pictures of Merkel, it was published after she was nominated as Time

01:01Person of the Year in 2015.

01:03The caption states that Angela Kasner is featured on the left of the picture at a 1972 New Year's

01:08Eve party in Berlin.

01:10Kasner is Angela Merkel's maiden name.

01:12Although Euroverify was unable to identify who the other girls in the picture are, the

01:17European Commission has previously confirmed to the media that von der Leyen does not feature

01:21in the picture.

01:22Meanwhile, Lithuanian officials told Euroverify that Garibalskite is not in the picture either.

01:27Additionally, childhood pictures of Theresa May do not resemble either of the other two

01:31teenage girls in the photograph.

01:33So yes, this is the picture of the former German Chancellor as a teenager, but the other

01:37two world leaders mentioned in the text cannot be seen in it.

01:41These kind of false online claims are regularly spread by accounts that share conspiracy theories,

01:46posing the risk of discrediting European institutions and their member states' governments

01:50with unfounded allegations.

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