Leonor de Borbon and Felipe VI. before the Congress during the flag-swearing ceremony of the Princess of Asturias on October 31st. Jaime Villanueva
Many will use a magnifying glass to read Felipe VI's Christmas address. read, which airs tonight, the tenth since his accession to the throne in 2014. Like every year. But this time more, because even though the government approves his speech before he delivers it, the king is forced to walk on a knife's edge and maintain balance in a climate of unprecedented tension and political polarization.
Last July, the newspaper El Debate, owned by the Catholic Association of Propagandists, published an article by its opinion leader in which he suggested that, following the foreseeable failure of the inauguration of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the king should allow the inauguration to run for two months until the automatic dissolution of the Cortes without naming Pedro Sánchez as a candidate. That is, he simply had to become another political agent and ignore the constitution, which is what legal experts such as former Justice Minister Tomás de la Quadra believe would have happened to him if he had acted this way.
Some in the government ranks also feared that the king would hesitate. But he didn't do it. Immediately after the conclusion of the second round of post-election consultations, on October 3, the head of state commissioned Pedro Sánchez to carry out the investiture. He could have held another round or given himself a few days to think about it, since the election of the socialist candidate was not a draw, but he wanted to clear the way for any speculation.
Of course, he justified his decision in a detailed statement in which he recalled that the responsibility to trust the candidate did not lie with him, but with Parliament. Even when she appointed Feijóo in August, La Zarzuela justified herself with a long note in which she claimed that it had become “customary” to entrust the leader of the party with the most votes with forming a government and that there was no alternative majority in sight be. The king and Feijóo himself knew that his inauguration was a toast to the sun.
Felipe VI and his father, the king emeritus, greet each other as they bid farewell to Constantine II, Queen Sofia's brother and the last king of Greece, at the funeral at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Athens on January 17.
The nomination of the candidate for the presidency of the government is one of the most important prerogatives of the head of state. Article 99(1) of the Constitution simply states that this must be done after consulting the political groups in Parliament, but does not clarify on what criteria it must base its decision. This is his great power and his greatest vulnerability.
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According to the Basic Law, the King is the “referee” who “regulates the proper functioning of the institutions”, but the referee cannot exercise his role if the teams do not accept the rules of the game and undertake to comply with them: “If “Instead of fair play practice, the field is deliberately muddied,” said an experienced politician.
The head of state moves within the consensus of the major political forces, where he can represent a very large majority of Spaniards. But this space has become smaller in recent years; Transversal issues – the fight against gender-based violence or climate change – are increasingly portrayed as divisive; Even calling for a ceasefire in Gaza or Ukraine can raise suspicions of partisanship. When the King demands that the Constitution be respected, some will interpret that he is asking the PP to renew the General Council of Justice; and others who demand that the PSOE abandon the amnesty for those accused of the Catalan trial.
King Felipe VI receives the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, on August 22nd at the Zarzuela Palace. Sebastian Mariscal Martinez (EFE)
Concentrations in Ferraz
For the first time in several weeks, right-wing demonstrators can be heard shouting against the monarchy at the Vox-sponsored and PP-sponsored rallies in front of the PSOE's federal headquarters on Ferraz Street in Madrid. “Felipe, Mason, defend the nation!” or “The Bourbons, to the sharks” were among the most frequently shouted slogans.
The flags of Spain with a hole in the middle represented the rejection not only of the constitutional shield, but also of the crown that crowned it. Some demonstrators were convinced that Felipe VI. would never approve the amnesty law, while others warned: “'Disappoint yourself if he swallowed Sánchez's investiture!' The king cannot refuse to sign a law approved by the Cortes.
“The head of state is fully aware of his constitutional obligations and carries them out conscientiously,” they limit themselves to the answer in La Zarzuela when asked about his attitude to investiture or amnesty.
King Felipe VI and the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, after taking the oath of office in Zarzuela on November 17th. Ballesteros (Pool/EFE)
The monarchy has always been in the crosshairs of parties to the left of the PSOE, which have used the issue to distance themselves from the socialists. What is new is that the Crown is being made the focus of criticism from the right, even if only as a secondary element. Alberto Núñez Feijóo assures that the amnesty is a rejection of Felipe VI's speech. of October 3, 2017, in which he opened the door to the application of Article 155 of the Constitution in Catalonia. It is obvious that this measure was supported by Pedro Sánchez himself, the leader of the opposition at the time.
The PP president has also accused the government of ignoring the King because the Secretary of State for Latin America and not the Foreign Minister accompanied him to the inauguration of the new Argentine President Javier Milei, even though José Manuel Albares had to attend a meeting of his EU colleagues in Brussels, and this situation happened more than once when the PP was in power. The approval for consideration in Congress of a Sumar proposal aimed at decriminalizing insults to the crown has helped put the monarchy once again at the center of the political conflict.
Princess Leonor takes the oath in Parliament on October 31 before the President of the Congress, Francina Armengol, and the Kings of Spain, Felipe VI. and Letizia, the constitution. Ballesteros (Pool/Efe)
The questioning of the head of state is not new, but at the moment it could be more worrying, government sources admit, as it coincides with an attempt to delegitimize the other institutions, starting with the government itself – which includes the third political force in the country , Vox, flagged as “illegal” –; past the President of the Cortes, whom the PP did not applaud in any official speech; the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), which is due to be renewed for five years; the Attorney General's Office or the Constitutional Court itself, which are accused of bias by the right-wing media.
Against the backdrop of the concentrations in Ferraz, ultra-conservative sectors have developed an active campaign against Queen Letizia, accused by some of being an environmentalist, secular and feminist, and accused by others of wanting the departure of the king emeritus, who has expatriated himself , enforced in Abu Dhabi since August 2020. .
In any case, both groups consider her to be a bad influence on the king and have made her the target of their attacks. The publication of a book by the veteran chronicler Jaime Peña, coincided with the testimony of Jaime del Burgo, the Queen's former brother-in-law, in which he alludes to an old romance with her; and the publication of Ms. Letizia's personal WhatsApp messages, which were later deleted, have led media outlets such as Britain's The Telegraph to suggest that it all stemmed from revenge on the part of those loyal to the previous monarch.
A demonstrator holds a Spanish flag without a shield and crown in front of the PSOE headquarters in Madrid on November 9th. Samuel Sanchez
But it is precisely the flank opened up by the departure of Juan Carlos I that the royal family is able to close. Once his court and tax accounts are settled in Switzerland, Spain and the United Kingdom – where his ex-lover Corinna Larsen demanded millions in compensation from him – the royal father will be able to travel in and out of Spain unhindered. He did it on October 31 to celebrate Princess Leonor's coming of age in El Pardo with the rest of the royal family. And he returned on the 20th to attend the 60th birthday commemoration of his first-born daughter, Infanta Elena, at a Madrid restaurant. In no case did he spend the night in Madrid. After the family reunion, he flew back to Abu Dhabi on a private jet.
Sanxenxo and Catalonia
According to sources close to him, the king emeritus does not want to sleep in Madrid if he cannot do so in La Zarzuela, a condition that, according to the government, his son imposed on him when his visits to Spain became normal. What is new is that these stays are no longer news and journalists no longer ask him for explanations of his accounts in tax havens, as they did during his first visit to the Sanxenxo Yacht Club (Pontevedra) in May 2022, but rather I wonder what the greeting meant, which he exchanged with Elena de Bordón when he said goodbye. Sources close to him assure that Juan Carlos I will spend his fourth Christmas in the Emirates without the company of his family, although relatives and friends are expected to visit him on January 5, when he turns 86.
For the royal family, the scandals surrounding the king emeritus are a thing of the past and the possibility of his return now depends on logistical and financial questions: where he would live, how he would make a living and what declarations he would have to make to the Ministry of Finance if he did would have a tax residence in Spain again.
The presence of the royal family in Catalonia is also no longer in the news. The unrest that accompanied the visits of Felipe VI after 2017, have disappeared, and he is even starting to regularly visit independence fiefdoms, such as the province of Girona, where he returned last June for the Princess of Girona awards ceremony in Caldes de Malavella. But not yet in the capital. Once the tension is over, La Zarzuela's goal is to restore cordiality.
Felipe VI has greater confidence in the solidity of the institution. allows him to concentrate this year on strengthening the public perception of his heiress Leonor de Borbón. Not only did she swear the constitution before the Cortes when she came of age, but the king also placed her at his side as an institutional figure at events such as the reception of the national holiday or the ceremonial opening of the legislative period. The monarchy is trying to stay on course without listing amid the political storm.
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