Landini erases Camusso from a photo to congratulate Lula

The CGIL is using Photoshop to ‘get rid’ of its former secretary. An image posted on social media today by the trade union shows General Secretary Maurizio Landini shaking hands with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. “Lula’s victory is a victory for democracy, labour and hope,” writes the CGIL, attaching a lengthy speech by Landini in which he congratulates Lula on his victory in the Brazilian presidential election: “My most sincere congratulations and a brotherly embrace”. Only the two of them appear in the photo, but in reality it is a retouched version of a photo that the trade union itself publishes on its website, in which Susanna Camusso can indeed be seen behind Landini and Lula, but she has been removed from the version of the photo intended for social media. 

The actual photograph was taken in Rome on 13 February 2020, during Lula da Silva’s visit to the CGIL headquarters. The current Brazilian president, who at the time had just been released from prison after 580 days in detention, had met Pope Francis that morning at Casa Santa Marta and, in the afternoon, had travelled to Corso d’Italia, where he was welcomed by CGIL General Secretary Landini alongside the leaders of CISL and UIL, Annamaria Furlan and Carmelo Barbagallo. Also present at the event was Susanna Camusso, who served as General Secretary of the CGIL until January 2019 (at the time the photo was taken, she was the CGIL’s head of gender and international policies) and is now a Member of Parliament.