Camusso ‘erased’ from photo with Landini and Lula: ‘It certainly wasn’t an accident’

“It was certainly no accident. When you remove a person from a photograph, you do so deliberately and after careful consideration. That is why I believe it is best to bury this unfortunate affair under a ‘no comment’.” Speaking to Corriere della Sera, Susanna Camusso, a PD senator and former secretary of the CGIL, commented on the case of the photograph published yesterday by the CGIL from which she had been removed. The image shows General Secretary Maurizio Landini shaking hands with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, accompanied by a lengthy speech by Landini in which he congratulates Lula on his victory in the Brazilian presidential election. However, as we report here, this is a retouched version of a photograph that the trade union itself publishes on its website, in which Susanna Camusso does indeed appear behind Landini and Lula, but was removed from the version of the photograph intended for circulation on social media. 

The actual photograph was taken in Rome on 13 February 2020, during Lula’s visit to the CGIL headquarters. The current Brazilian president had met Pope Francis at Casa Santa Marta that morning 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.