King Emeritus Juan Carlos (i) aboard the Bribón at the closing ceremony of the 3rd Regatta of the IV Spanish Cup Circuit 2022 in the 6 Meter class on May 22, 2022, in Sanxenxo, Pontevedra, Galicia (Spain).
©SailingShots by María Muiña Pho05/22/2022©SailingShots by María Muiña Photography (Europa Press)
Felipe VI faces today one of the most difficult meetings of his reign, the one he will have with his own father, whom he has not seen for almost two years.
The atmosphere surrounding this appointment is one of coldness and suspicion on both sides.
The stay of Juan Carlos I in Sanxenxo (Pontevedra) has caused deep concern in La Zarzuela, which would have preferred that the first visit of the emeritus king since he expatriated in Abu Dhabi, on August 3, 2020, was discreet and austere and not a television show.
Dozens of cameras have followed Juan Carlos I every time he entered or left the house of his friend Pedro Campos or the Yacht Club, and the three days of regatta concluded with the delivery of a prize to the king emeritus.
The Casa del Rey has wanted to give a low profile to the visit to La Zarzuela, which will take place at the end and not at the beginning of Juan Carlos I's stay in Spain, as would have been logical both from a personal and institutional point of view.
The official agenda of the Royal Family is blank for today.
The Casa del Rey has gone ahead to underline that it is "a family meeting in the private sphere", for which no news coverage has been announced.
Nor who will attend the meeting.
In the statement in which the Casa del Rey announced the visit of Juan Carlos I, he limited himself to pointing out that Felipe VI, Queen Sofía and "other members of his family" will be at the meeting (which is expected to include a meal), without specifying .
They could only be Queen Letizia and Infanta Sofía,
because the princess of Asturias is interned in Wales.
The daughters of the Kings and Froilán, son of the infanta Elena, are the only ones who have not visited his grandfather in Abu Dhabi.
The Casa del Rey has only reported one telephone conversation between Felipe VI and his father in the 654 days he has been out of Spain: the one they held on the 15th when the King went to Abu Dhabi on the occasion of the death of the chief Khalifa .
Despite meeting in the same city, more than 5,000 kilometers from Spain, father and son did not get to see each other in person.
Political division
After visiting La Zarzuela, Juan Carlos I will travel back to Abu Dhabi in the private plane (a Gulfstream G-450 from an Angolan business flight company) that brought him to Vigo on Thursday.
He is expected to return to Sanxenxo for the 6mR sailing world cup that takes place between June 10 and 18.
The visit of the emeritus king has aggravated the division between the political forces on the Monarchy.
The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, assured that it makes no sense to question that "a citizen who has no pending case \[with Justice\] and has been King of Spain for decades visits his country."
Those who do, he added, only intend to "question the Head of State and the Constitution,"
reports Sonia Vizoso.
On the contrary, Ione Balarra, Minister of Social Rights and General Secretary of Podemos, branded what happened these days as "humiliation for democracy".
"The fundamental problem is not the king emeritus and his corrupt business, the problem is that anyone who holds office can do the same thing as many times as they want," she added.
Some 300 people, according to the Government Delegation, demonstrated yesterday in the center of Madrid, near the Royal Palace, against the Monarchy and the trip of the King Emeritus.