Many will read with a magnifying glass the Christmas speech of Felipe VI that is broadcast tonight, the tenth since he came to the throne in 2014. Like every year. But this time more because, although the Government approves his speech before he delivers it, the King is forced to walk on the razor's edge and maintain balance in a climate of unprecedented tension and political polarization.
Last July, the digital The debate, owned by the Catholic Association of Propagandists, published an article by its opinion director in which he suggested that, after the foreseeable failure of the investiture of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the King should let the two-month deadline run until the automatic dissolution of the Cortes without designating Pedro Sánchez as a candidate. That is to say, he had to become another political agent and ignore the Constitution, something that he would have incurred if he acted this way, in the opinion of jurists such as former Minister of Justice Tomás de la Quadra.
Also in the ranks of the Government, some feared that the King would hesitate. But he did not. As soon as the second round of consultations after the elections concluded, on October 3, the head of state entrusted Pedro Sánchez with the investiture. He could have held another round or taken a few days of reflection, since the election of the socialist candidate was not tied, but he wanted to close the way to any speculation.
Of course, he justified his decision in an extensive statement in which he recalled that the responsibility of granting confidence to the candidate was not his but that of Parliament. Also when he appointed Feijóo, in August, La Zarzuela justified itself with a long note in which it alleged that entrusting the leader of the most voted party with forming a government had become “customary” and that no alternative majority was in sight. The King and Feijóo himself knew that his investiture was a toast to the sun.
The nomination of the candidate to preside over the Government is one of the most important prerogatives of the head of state. Article 99.1 of the Constitution It only indicates that it must do so after consulting with the parliamentary political groups, but does not clarify on what criteria it must base its decision. That is its great power and its greatest vulnerability.
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The King is the “referee” who “moderates the regular functioning of the institutions,” according to the Basic Law, but the referee cannot exercise his role if the teams do not accept the rules of the game and undertake to respect them: “If instead to practice the fair playthe field is deliberately muddied,” in the words of a veteran politician.
The head of state moves in the field of consensus among the major political forces, where he can represent a very large majority of Spaniards. But that space has been shrinking in recent years; Issues that were transversal—the fight against sexist violence or climate change—begin to be presented as divisive; Even calling for a ceasefire in Gaza or Ukraine can raise suspicions of partisanship. If the King demands that the Constitution be complied with, some will hear that he is demanding that the PP renew the General Council of the Judiciary; and others, that he is demanding that the PSOE desist from going ahead with the amnesty for those accused of the processes Catalan independence movement.
Concentrations in Ferraz
For the first time, in the rallies promoted by Vox and encouraged by the PP in front of the federal headquarters of the PSOE, on Ferraz Street in Madrid, for several weeks, right-wing protesters have been heard shouting against the Monarchy. “Felipe, mason, defend the Nation!” or “The Bourbons, to the sharks” have been among the most chanted slogans.
The flags of Spain with a hole in the center not only represented the rejection of the constitutional shield but also of the crown that culminates it. Some protesters were convinced that Felipe VI would never sanction the amnesty law, while others warned: “'Disappoint yourself, if he has swallowed with Sánchez's investiture!' The King cannot refuse to sign a law approved by the Cortes.
“The head of state is fully aware of what his constitutional obligations are and scrupulously fulfills them,” they limit themselves to answering in La Zarzuela when asked about his attitude towards the investiture or the amnesty.
The Monarchy has always been in the crosshairs of the parties to the left of the PSOE, which used this issue to distance themselves from the socialists. The novelty is that from the right the Crown is placed in the scene of its criticism, even if it is as a collateral element. Alberto Núñez Feijóo assures that the amnesty represents a disavowal of the speech that Felipe VI gave on October 3, 2017, in which he opened the door to the application of article 155 of the Constitution in Catalonia. He points out that this measure was supported by Pedro Sánchez himself, then leader of the opposition.
The leader of the PP has also accused the Government of ignoring the King for the fact that the Secretary of State for Latin America and not the Minister of Foreign Affairs accompanied him to the inauguration of the new Argentine president, Javier Milei, despite the fact that José Manuel Albares had to chair a meeting of his EU counterparts in Brussels and this circumstance occurred on more than one occasion when the PP governed. The admission for processing in Congress of a Sumar proposal that seeks to decriminalize insults to the Crown has served to place the Monarchy once again at the epicenter of the political fray.
The questioning of the Head of State is not new but at this moment it may be more worrying, government sources admit, because it coincides with the attempt to delegitimize the other institutions, starting with the Government itself – to which the third political force in the country, Vox , labeled “illegal”—; passing through the president of the Cortes, whom the PP has avoided applauding in any official speech; the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), pending renewal for five years; the State Attorney General's Office or the Constitutional Court itself, accused of bias by the right-wing media.
With the concentrations in Ferraz as a background, an active campaign has been developed by ultra-conservative sectors against Queen Letizia, whom some accuse of being an environmentalist, secular and feminist and others of having forced the departure of the king emeritus, self-expatriated in Abu Dhabi since August 2020. .
In any case, both groups consider her 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 Peñafiel with the testimony of the Queen's former brother-in-law, Jaime del Burgo, in which he hints at an old romance with her; and the publication of whatsapps Mrs. Letizia's personal details, subsequently deleted, have led media such as the British The Telegraph to suggest that everything responds to a revenge of those most faithful to Juan Carlos I.
However, it is precisely the flank opened by the departure of Juan Carlos I that the Royal House is managing to close. Once the judicial and tax accounts he had in Switzerland, Spain and the United Kingdom have been settled – where his ex-lover Corinna Larsen demanded million-dollar compensation from him – the King's father can enter and leave Spain freely. 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 commemoration of the 60th birthday of her first-born daughter, Infanta Elena, in a Madrid restaurant. In neither case did she stay the night in Madrid. After the family reunion he took a private jet to return to Abu Dhabi.
Sanxenxo and Catalonia
According to sources close to him, the emeritus king does not want to sleep in Madrid if he cannot do so in La Zarzuela, a condition that his son imposed on him, according to the Government, when his visits to Spain became normal. What is new is that these stays have stopped being news, and that journalists no longer ask him for explanations for his accounts in tax havens, as they did the first time he went to the Sanxenxo yacht club (Pontevedra) in May 2022, but rather wonder about the meaning of the greeting he exchanged with Elena de Bordón when saying 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 come visit him on January 5, when he turns 86.
For the Royal House, the scandals that surrounded the emeritus king are a thing of the past and the possibility of his return now depends on logistical and financial issues: where he would reside, how he would support himself and what explanations he would have to give to the Treasury if he were to have tax residence again in Spain.
The presence of the Royal Family in Catalonia has also ceased to be in the news. The disturbances that surrounded Felipe VI's visits after 2017 have disappeared and he is even beginning to frequent independence fiefdoms, such as Girona, as evidenced by the return to the province, although not yet to the capital, of the Princess Awards ceremony. from Girona in Caldes de Malavella. The objective of La Zarzuela is to recover cordiality.
The greater confidence in the solidity of the institution has allowed Felipe VI to focus this year on enhancing the public projection of his heir, Leonor de Borbón. She has not only sworn the Constitution before the Cortes upon reaching the age of majority, but the King has incorporated her by her side as an institutional figure in events such as the reception of the National Day or the solemn opening of the legislature. The Monarchy, in the midst of the political storm, tries to stay the course without listing.
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