• Gathered in Rome this weekend for the G20, Emmanuel Macron, Boris Johnson and Angela Merkel posed in front of the famous Trevi fountain.

  • As tradition dictates, they threw a coin into the fountain.

  • This gesture was misinterpreted.

    A former Portuguese minister argued that leaders were throwing a coin for "luck in tackling the climate emergency".

A misinterpreted gesture.

Gathered this weekend in Rome for the G20, the leaders of the top twenty world economic powers took a pose on Sunday in front of the Trevi Fountain, an essential tourist stopover in the Italian capital.

As is tradition, they each threw a coin into the fountain.

However, the significance of this gesture, repeated by thousands of tourists every year, has been misinterpreted on Twitter.

Bruno Maçães, Portugal's former secretary of state for European affairs, argued that the leaders were throwing a coin "to be lucky in the fight against the climate emergency".

His message has been relayed tens of thousands of times since its publication on Sunday, including by French politicians, as LCI noted.

FAKE OFF

If the tourists, and these leaders, throw a coin in the fountain, it is simply to make sure they return to Rome one day.

A tradition confirmed by the G20 organization on Twitter:

The # G20 Leaders toss a coin into the Trevi Fountain.



The tradition holds that a coin thrown into the fountain will ensure a return to Rome.

# G20RomeSummit # G20Italy pic.twitter.com/F335SJMRZ6

- G20 Italy (@ g20org) October 31, 2021

The leaders' quick exit was above all an opportunity to take a group photo, before they met the next day in Glasgow for the opening ceremony of COP26.

At the end of this two-day Roman summit, the leaders pledged to donate 100 billion dollars to vulnerable countries to face the crisis caused by the pandemic.

They also went a little further than the 2015 Paris Agreement, reaffirming the objective of limiting the average increase in temperatures and stressing that “keeping (the objective of) 1.5 degrees within reach will require action and meaningful and effective commitments from all countries ”.

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