Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy’s Carnival double is a hit on Twitter
Jogging leader parodied with frightening accuracy at carnival parade in Basque town of Tolosa
With Spain’s Carnival season in full swing, some revelers have sought to make a political point, with one unusual disguise proving a hit on Twitter.
It doesn't take much to come up with a good costume.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, a politician not normally associated with the great outdoors and sometimes criticized for taking a slow-and-steady approach to politics, was famously snapped in 2014 while out jogging during a brief holiday in his native Galicia. Since then, the image has become an internet meme.
Now a participant in the Carnival parade in Tolosa, in the Basque Country, has taken the meme a step further by dressing up as the PM on Monday, garnering more than 3,500 retweets for his efforts. Wearing a white polo shirt, shorts, and white socks, the would-be Rajoy is flanked by “security” and a few fellow runners. The video was shot by Rubén Plaza, a photographer for local daily Noticias de Gipuzkoa.
Spanish satirists have taken plenty of advantage of the internet meme to poke fun at the Spanish PM. A 2015 video from Spanish site El Intermedio has Rajoy supposedly walking home to an electoral win and that went viral in Spain.
English version by Nick Lyne.