Historic meeting in El Pardo. In the midst of the aftermath of the publication of the memoirs of the king emeritus (Reconciliationpublished in France and published in Spain on December 3), the entire royal family gathered this Saturday for lunch in the palace in Madrid to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the parliamentary monarchy in Spain. An anniversary whose institutional celebration was celebrated this Friday without the presence of the head of the Crown for 39 years, Juan Carlos I. This November 22, however, the past, present and future of an institution embodied in the king emeritus, Juan Carlos I, the current king, Felipe VI, and Princess Leonor, sat around a table for the first time since 2023, when the heiress turned 18 and swore on the Constitution.
Zarzuela had been trying for months to fit the presence of Juan Carlos I into the framework of the 50th anniversary of the monarchy, but his situation of self-exile in Abu Dhabi and the recent publication of his controversial memoirs – in which, among other things, does not leave Queen Letizia in a good position – have brought his presence at the anniversary in a “strictly” private setting. A lunch in El Pardo was the format chosen by King Felipe VI, who also extended the invitation to the wider family such as his sisters, the infantes Elena and Cristina, or his nephews.
Lunch was scheduled for today at 1.30pm. and shortly after 1pm the first diners began to arrive. Although La Zarzuela wanted to avoid any image, the photographers stationed at EL Pardo since morning obtained a photo of the car in which Juan Carlos I arrived, which they did not allow to be shown.
The absence of Juan Carlos I this Friday at the institutional event at the Royal Palace was partly compensated by several references to his fundamental work to facilitate the transition from Francisco Franco’s dictatorship to a liberal democracy. Philip VI, who usually does not mention his father in his speeches, referred to the king emeritus, praising his work in that period which contributed to imposing a certain stability in Spain.
The former President of the Government, Felipe González, who received the Golden Fleece together with the two living fathers of the Constitution, Miguel Herrero Rodríguez de Miñón and Miquel Roca, also remembered the figure of Juan Carlos I – as well as that of Adolfo Suárez and Santiago Carrillo – in the Transition process. Philip VI took advantage of the event to impose the order of the Golden Fleece on his mother, Queen Sophia.
