A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties that officially ends a state of war between the parties. It is distinguished from a ceasefire, which is an agreement to cease hostilities, or from a surrender, where one party agrees to give up arms, or from a truce or armistice, where the parties may agree to to give up the fight temporarily or permanently. As a rule, such pacts are concluded in neutral places where everyone involved feels equal. The Allies and the German Empire decided on a railway carriage to end the fighting in the First World War. The King's family, divided for a decade by the Nóos case of Infanta Cristina and the legal cases of King Juan Carlos, has chosen the Pabú restaurant in Madrid, specializing in micro-seasonal cuisine, to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of Doña Elena and by the way , stage peace.
The royal family has the Zarzuela complex for their private meetings: the palace itself, where Queen Sofia has her residence (Juan Carlos I has lived in Abu Dhabi since 2020) and where Felipe VI's office is located. is located, and a second building, the so-called Prince's Pavilion, where the current monarch and his wife, Queen Letizia, live, a house with about 1,800 square meters of usable space. But peace should never be made privately, but rather publicly. On Wednesday, photographers and television cameras were able to capture every detail of the Bourbons' arrival and departure at the restaurant of chef Coco Montes, a student of Alain Passard, in Madrid's Chamartín district, near the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.
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Infanta Elena, the birthday girl who had been separated from the royal family since 2014 on her brother's orders and no longer had an official role, arrived at the establishment alone. Their children Victoria and Felipe did it together. Infanta Cristina, who has also been separated from the royal family since 2014 and has not held the title of Duchess of Palma since 2015 due to her involvement in the Nóos case, arrived with her mother, Queen Sofía. Her children entered the restaurant along with Princesses Irene and Alexia of Greece. Juan Carlos I, without a personal commission since 2020 and with tax residence in the capital of the United Arab Emirates since 2023, met arm in arm with his loyal squire Vicente García-Mochales, Lieutenant Colonel of the Guardia Civil and Chief of Security of the United Arab Emirates, Emeritus . Kings Felipe and Letizia entered and left alone. “How are you?” “Could you be with your father?” the journalists asked the monarch, who did not answer the question. Everyone smiled, but no one said anything.
At the end of lunch, the Emeritus King left Pabú alone. Behind him stood Infanta Elena. Together they starred in the most discussed scene of the meeting, a coordinated greeting that has gone viral on social networks: a kiss on each cheek, a protocol and essential kneel down, the crossing of the forehead, a sleight of hand and a “clash of ….” Brothers.” X (formerly Twitter) users have considered all sorts of hypotheses. “They are Freemasons,” some claimed, referring to the gestures with which members of Freemasonry recognize themselves in public spaces. “They are members of the Magi, the Stonemasons,” others said jokingly, recalling the fictional secret lodge that Homer Simpson enters in the sixth season of the animated series “The Simpsons.” And then endless jokes. “What a nonsense.” “The Bronxbones.” “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.” “I had the same greeting with my heavy friend from ESO.” “Almost like Lebron and Kyrie.”
The greeting between Infanta Elena and the King Emeritus seems to have surprised everyone except the Spanish nobility. “The kiss on the cheek is a sign of familiarity and the kneeling is dictated by protocol. They always do. Crossing the forehead is an old Spanish custom. And the game or high five is a fun gesture of complicity between them. “I don’t understand all the fuss,” complains an aristocrat in an interview with EL PAÍS. “The hand thing is strange and I don’t know. But I see a lot of choreography,” says another noblewoman. “It reminds me of the sign of the cross on the forehead that my mother made for us, who was born into a very Catholic family in the 1920s. She did it for us when she was very excited or something important or special was being celebrated in the family,” says a lady who knows the Bourbons well. “It has to be. Although Spain is something very old, very stale,” admits the same source. And he adds: “Queen Sofia would never do it because she was raised Orthodox, even though it was officially her honeymoon.”
It could be a ritual that goes back to the time of the Alfonso children. Marina Fernández, communications director at the International School of Protocol, has her theory about why they are now showing this gesture in public. “It is a private gesture between father and daughter that aims to highlight the excellent relationship between them. Elena often travels to Abu Dhabi and the king traveled to Madrid for his daughter's birthday. “Both wanted to show their good relationship with this strange gesture that only they understand,” Fernández explains to EL PAÍS. “I think it's something contrived, rehearsed, a communication strategy to tell the rest of us that they get along very well and that she supports her father,” he concludes. It seems that there is peace in the palace, although there also seem to be sides.