Berlanga died fifteen years ago, but his spirit still wanders the Peninsula, gifting us with images that reveal the tragicomic nature of a certain atavistic Spain. The latest example is the photograph shared by the Royal Household of Felipe and Letizia's visit to the site of the Adamuz train accident. The King and Queen are seen accompanied by a group of dignitaries, including First Vice President María Jesús Montero, Minister of Transport Óscar Puente, and the President of the Regional Government of Andalusia. Queen Letizia is dressed in black in mourning, and a Civil Guard officer stands beside her: only the priest is missing. The photo is off-center so that the macabre twisted wreckage of the train can be seen in the background, along with small, orange-clad workers at the scene. It is the institutional version of that odious photo of the typical influencer who posts selfies when visiting Auschwitz, searching for his best angle. He's like a hunter posing with the dead bone that will soon become a rug, but with a far more unsettling trophy. The video capturing the moment is also extremely awkward, because it shows Montero elbowing her way to the front to appear next to the king, which violates protocol, leaving the queen stuck at one end of the frame. Such are the obligations of the pre-election campaign.
How obvious the lack of tact must be, given that the Royal Household's website has ended up hiding an image worthy of Goya, demonstrating that the photo matters more than the dead. They didn't remove it, but they stopped highlighting it as they did initially. And I'll bet a pea that the courtly newspapers that chronicle every single movement of the monarchs will choose other photographs tomorrow. In any case, the appearance of this gossip has brought me no small consolation: it proves that, no matter how much technological revolution sweeps us away, life will always triumph over even the most malicious AI.
