The Government will only resort to Felipe VI in the crisis with Rabat as a last resort

Felipe VI and Mohamed VI and Mrs. Letizia, behind, during the State visit of the Kings of Spain to Rabat in February 2019.Carlos Alvarez / Getty Images

King Juan Carlos I could not contain his tears at Hassan II's funeral in July 1999. The King of Morocco - who had taken Western Sahara from him in Franco's last gasps, despite the fact that he had traveled to the still a Spanish colony to harangue the troops stationed there — he became his “older brother,” someone with whom he could speak with the frankness and heartiness that characterized the Spanish Monarch. This familiarity, although attenuated by the age difference, was maintained by Juan Carlos I with Mohamed VI, who considered him almost like an uncle, but was not inherited by the current King of Spain, Felipe VI.

Although he speaks perfectly Spanish, Mohamed VI has never visited Spain. There was a time when he could do it; and for a long season. People who were aware of the operation have explained to EL PAÍS that, at the beginning of the last decade, King Juan Carlos invited the Moroccan Monarch to come to Spain to treat his health problems, aggravated by suffering from chronic asthma, but he preferred to treat himself in Paris, where he would buy a luxurious mansion.

Although Felipe VI and Mohamed VI are of a similar age (53 years the first, 57 the second), their contacts have been scarce. After accessing the throne, the Kings made a presentation trip to Rabat in July 2014 and, almost five years later, in February 2019, a state visit of just over 24 hours. This last visit was postponed several times, first due to the prolonged stays of Mohamed VI in France; and then because having the Kings of Spain as guests forced him to formalize his divorce from Princess Lalla Salma.

The fact that Felipe VI does not have the familiarity of his father with the King of Morocco does not mean that he cannot telephone him.

At least one call between the two is known: it occurred in August 2014, when Mohamed VI appealed to the Spanish king to complain that the Civil Guard had detained him when he was sailing with a jet ski near Ceuta, suspecting that he might be a drug dealer.

Although his relationship with the Alawite royal house is colder and more formal than that of his father, Felipe VI could call Mohamed VI to try to soften the crisis.

But he has not done so, because the Government has not asked him to do so.

"The King is very aware of his constitutional role and will not take the initiative if the Government does not request it," according to sources close to La Zarzuela.

The first vice president, Carmen Calvo, ruled out on Friday asking Felipe VI for a management because "the Government does not involve the King in political matters", a surprising argument, since the role of the Monarch consists precisely in helping, under the direction of the Government, to solve state problems.

Diplomatic sources indicate, on the contrary, that the King is a powerful instrument of Spanish diplomacy, but should be used "when it is really useful", as a last resort, and not "put him in the trigger" without guarantees of success.