Público says ambassador will “repatriate fellow citizens”?

A post is circulating on social media that appears to be a news item from the newspaper Público with the following headline: “Ambassador of São Tomé and Príncipe gets embarrassed and decides to repatriate fellow citizens to their country of origin.”

Looking at the image, with the Público newspaper icon in the top left corner and the signature “Lusa” on the right, the publication intends to make the reader believe that it is a news item from the Lusa news agency published in the aforementioned newspaper on July 20, 2025.

The image, shared in several posts on Facebook and Instagram, has racked up likes, shares, and comments. None of the posts link to the full story—because it doesn't exist.

The image above is a composite. The newspaper Público did not publish any news story with the aforementioned title or content, something Observador verified by searching the newspaper's website. Nor did the Lusa News Agency publish a story with the same information.

Furthermore, the ambassador of São Tomé and Príncipe made statements on the same date as the fake news, July 20, but with information that was completely contrary to that conveyed in the publications analyzed.

Referring to the situation in the Talude neighborhood of Loures, Esterline Gonçalves, ambassador of São Tomé and Príncipe, described the situation as "dramatic" and lamented not having been informed of the plan to demolish the neighborhood's homes. He stated that he had tried to speak with the mayor of Loures, but without success. The statements were reported by the Lusa news agency and also reproduced in the Público newspaper .

Furthermore, the first time the publication in question appeared was on July 21, on a social media page that presents (to its more than 20 thousand followers) several manipulated images with graphics that resemble that of a media outlet.

Conclusion

The post circulating on social media is fake, was never published in Público newspaper, and there is no credible source for the information it contains—in fact, the protagonist of the alleged news story made statements to precisely the opposite effect, as mentioned above. Furthermore, the post was first published on a page dedicated to the dissemination of other fake news.

So, according to the Observer's rating system, this content is:

WRONG

In Facebook's rating system , this content is:

FALSE: The content's main claims are factually inaccurate. This option typically corresponds to "false" or "mostly false" ratings on fact-checking websites.

NOTE: this content was selected by Observador as part of a fact-checking partnership with Facebook.