The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, held a videoconference yesterday with four of his ministers regarding the situation in Ceuta from his summer break at the La Mareta estate in Lanzarote, and from La Moncloa a video and a photograph of the moment were sent to the media. The fact is that the still image of the episode distributed by the EFE agency has sparked some controversy because the head of the Executive’s legs are not visible below the desk in his office while he speaks addressing the ministers who appear on a screen.
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The fact that the presidential legs are not seen has led some media to publish that the photograph might have been manipulated, an idea that has spread like wildfire on social media but which has been firmly rejected by sources close to the Presidency.
The trompe-l’œil of the photo of Pedro Sánchez without legs at La Mareta
EFE
The media that have published that the image might be retouched recall when in 2021 Sánchez from the same office held a telematic meeting about the evacuation of Spaniards and collaborators from Afghanistan with the imminent entry of the Taliban into Kabul wearing a suit and footwear with espadrilles, which sparked some mockery on social media.
However, sources close to the Presidency assure that “the photo is real and even point out that if you zoom in well you can see the president’s leg and it can be seen that he is wearing mid-cropped pants.” The photo “is not doctored or modified,” they insist. “It’s a trompe-l’œil, it seems like he has no legs but the legs are behind the wood,” say the consulted sources.
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In fact, La Moncloa also distributed a video in which the upper part of the president’s legs can be seen in a medium shot, but not the lower part.
The president appears wearing a pink shirt with rolled-up sleeves and his arms on the desk. A pitcher of cold water with a glass, some papers, and several markers. He looks at a screen with which he talks to the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles; the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande Marlaska; the Government spokesperson and head of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations, Elma Saiz; the Minister of Youth and Childhood, Sira Rego; and the Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres.
