Vargas Llosa invites Juan Carlos I to his admission ceremony at the French Academy

Juan Carlos I is among the guests at Mario Vargas Llosa's admission ceremony to the French Academy on February 9.

Vargas Llosa has explained to EL PAÍS that he has extended the invitation to the Spanish monarch, resident in Abu Dhabi since he left Spain in the summer of 2020 to prevent scandals from damaging the Crown.

The emeritus king has received the invitation and has conveyed to the writer his intention to travel to Paris.

The former head of state, who no longer has outstanding accounts with the Spanish treasury or justice, has rarely moved from his refuge in Abu Dhabi since he left Spain.

On January 16 he attended the funeral in Athens of his brother-in-law Constantine of Greece.

In September 2022 he traveled to London on the occasion of Elizabeth II's funeral.

In May of the same year he visited the Galician municipality of Sanxenxo and met with his family in Madrid.

The Nobel, in statements to EL PAÍS, has said that his invitation to the king emeritus is due to a "very simple" reason: "To the extent that kings can have friends, I am a friend of his."

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Mario Vargas Llosa enters the French Academy

Vargas Llosa remembers that, when he obtained Spanish nationality in 1993, Juan Carlos I called him at eight in the morning to tell him that "he was very happy that I was his subject."

Also, when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010, the king emeritus called him the next day to tell him: "I have to give you something, I have to give you a title!"

And in 2011 he gave him the Marquesado de Vargas Llosa that the author has never used, “of course”.

“He has always been very affectionate with me.

At receptions, at official events… So I thought that, since he is in the doldrums, this invitation suddenly came in handy ”.

What did Juan Carlos de Borbón tell you?

"He replied that he was delighted, and he is going to the event with one of his daughters."

It is about the Infanta Cristina, according to the writer.

Before saying goodbye, Vargas Llosa insists: “It is a gesture of pure sympathy.

I have no relationship with the king, nor do I speak with him, nor do we see each other.

Kings don't have friends, they have subjects.

That's why I say that, to the extent that a king could have them, I would be one of them.

And since he is in the doldrums, I remember him ”.

Mario Vargas Llosa, upon his arrival at the Plenary Session of the Board of the Royal Spanish Academy, on January 19 in Madrid.José Oliva (Europa Press)

Vargas Llosa's entry into the French Academy, founded by Cardinal Richelieu in the 17th century, will be one of the literary and social events of the winter in Paris.

The author of

is the first writer without a work in French to enter the august institution on

Conti, directed with an iron fist by the historian Hélène Carrère d'Encausse.

The Spanish language academic will also be the first Nobel member of the club since François Mauriac died in 1970.

Juan Carlos I, despite the scandals and despite having fallen out of favor in Spain after his abdication in 2014, continues to be a respected figure in France for his role in the transition to democracy.

This is a country, after all, where a former head of state such as Nicolas Sarkozy continues to have political influence and social respect, despite twice being sentenced to prison for corruption and illegal financing (Sarkozy appealed both sentences, so they are suspended).

Elected to the French Academy in November 2021 with 18 votes out of a total of 22 votes, Vargas Llosa later had to meet with the President of the Republic, and

of the institution, as before the Sun King and his successors, to formally receive your go-ahead.

The meeting was held in September during a dinner at the Élysée Palace which, in addition to Vargas Llosa, was attended by Carrère d'Encausse and the literary critic, and also a new academic, Antoine Compagnon.

The author of

and columnist for EL PAÍS for more than three decades will take possession of seat 18, which was vacated by the philosopher Michel Serres when he died in 2019. Before this seat was held, among others, by one of the founders of thought liberal in the 19th century, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Marshal Philippe Pétain, leader of France's collaboration with Hitler during World War II.

At the entrance ceremony, the academics, including Vargas Llosa, will attend with the traditional green suit and sword.

The new academic – or

, as they are called in France – will read a eulogy by Michel Serres.

The person in charge of the reception speech will be the writer and academic Daniel Rondeau, who was at the origin of the initiative to choose the Spanish-Peruvian novelist.

Upon being elected, Vargas Llosa thus recalled the origin of the initiative: “We had a coffee [with Rondeau].

And he was with another academic with us.

And suddenly they told me that the French Academy was waiting for me.

And there they practically set up an ambush from which I have turned out to be a French academic”.

The choice of the liberal writer aroused some resistance in France.

Some questioned that an author who had never written in French could sit in the institution that acts as guardian of the essences of the language.

And in the press he was reproached for his political positions in Latin America, and his "fervent anti-communism and economic ultraliberalism."

But within the institution the consensus in favor of Vargas Llosa prevailed.

“I understand the arguments of those who are against it: they are all admirers of Vargas Llosa, but they think that the French Academy is the French language and, therefore, a Spanish-speaking writer, no matter how legitimate and important it may be, has no place there” , explained, before the vote, the essayist and academic Alain Finkielkraut.

"I think we can accept it, because it is Vargas Llosa and he has a totally loving relationship with French culture."

The French Academy, which has 40 members although there are vacancies, meets under the dome of the Institut de France, an organization that houses other academies such as the Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Fine Arts or the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences.

One of the members of the latter is Juan Carlos I. He was elected in March 1988 as a "foreign associate" and holds seat 11, left vacant by Jorge Luis Borges when he died.

With information from Miguel González

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