Fact-check: Italian PM made no remarks regarding Imran Khan or Shehbaz Sharif

A claim circulating online alleges that Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, during a recent media interaction, praised Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and suggested that Pakistan could have become a superpower had he assumed office a decade earlier.

This claim is false. No such statement was made.

Claim

On April 19, an account on X (formerly Twitter) shared a short video showing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaking to reporters. The caption stated: “I don’t know who Imran Khan is, but I will say this much: if a capable man like Shehbaz Sharif had been made prime minister 10 years ago, Pakistan would certainly have been a superpower by now.”

The user asserted that Meloni had made this statement.

At the time of writing, the post had received 128,000 views, 3,100 likes, and 878 reposts.

Identical claims have also been shared elsewhere on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram here, here and here.

Fact

Italy’s prime minister did not make any remarks about former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan or current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the circulating video.

Using reverse image search, Geo Fact Check traced the clip to a media interaction held on April 14, 2026, during Meloni’s visit to a fair in Verona, Italy.

A translation of the original Italian audio shows that she was responding to a journalist’s question about US President Donald Trump. Her comments addressed Trump’s criticism of Pope Leo XIV, whom he had described as “weak” in an April 12 post on Truth Social.

One version of the entire video, accompanied with English captions, can be viewed here.

Another segment of the same press interaction was reported by the German outlet DW.

Geo Fact Check found no credible news reports attributing any statements about Pakistani politics to Meloni.

Verdict: The viral video misrepresents Giorgia Meloni’s remarks. Her comments were about Donald Trump’s criticism of the Pope and contained no reference to Imran Khan or Shehbaz Sharif.

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