The King and Pedro Sánchez, masters of graphic editors

There are impressive, vibrant cover photos that tell stories in a single frozen moment. But all too often there are cover photos that consist only of an indeterminate number of people, usually male and wearing ties, embodying power in the setting of a summit, meeting or congress. Although the resulting image is generally rather dull, the photo editors who choose the best frame from the dozens that have reached them are looking for the composition that tries to generate a concrete meaning, even if it does not correspond to reality. I imagine them as older children who, instead of playing with clicks, airgamboys and madelmans, have in politicians their own toys, to arrange them this way or that as editorially convenient.

The King and Pedro Sánchez met at the Mobile World Congress and The Country Of course, he underlines the return to normality. He does so with a photograph of the two of them chatting, with their hands covering their mouths, in case someone is reading their lips. However, there are smiles and the image, in any case, gives off complicity. On the other hand, theAbc The headline is "Sanchez gives up sovereignty at the border to Puigdemont." Here we see a Sánchez in profile and a Felipe VI looking straight ahead, avoiding eye contact, and with a rather severe expression. Although probably only a few seconds separate one image from the other, what they convey has nothing to do with each other and the headline has just conditioned the gaze. By the way, the king has been on the front pages of the right-wing press for weeks, every other day. It will be a unique case in Europe in which a figure without executive functions occupies so many front pages with the mere news of his presence on one side or the other. It is good to ask what deficiency all this editorial overacting denotes.