King Felipe VI has been reunited with his father this Sunday on the occasion of the attendance of both at the reception that the new King of England has offered to the dignitaries invited to the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II this Monday and in the presence of both the Queen Letizia as Sofia.
As happened when they saw each other on May 23 at Zarzuela, in which it was the first family reunion since Juan Carlos moved to the United Arab Emirates, there was no press present at the time.
From Zarzuela they have underlined in recent days, after announcing that both the king and the monarch’s parents would come to London, that everything related to the organization and protocol corresponded to the British authorities, so we will have to wait to see if the British royal family spreads some image of them.
The reception offered by King Carlos III and Queen Camilla is unprecedented, given the large number of guests, several hundred. Among them were kings, presidents and prime ministers from all over the world, as well as the most prominent figures in British political life, including the new ‘premier’, Liz Truss.
As will also happen this Monday for the transfer to the funeral, a good part of those attending the reception have arrived at Buckingham Palace aboard several buses, including the kings, who have arrived in one of them in which the presidents of Austria and Poland among others.
Juan Carlos and Sofía had arrived about an hour earlier on another of those buses. The emeritus, with clear mobility problems, walked leaning on a cane and an assistant, with the Queen emeritus at his side, both in deep mourning.
Few details have been given from the British royal house about how the reception will be, beyond that the guests will be received in the Picture Gallery and that they will be offered drinks and canapés.
Nor has it been clarified which members of the British royal family will be present, beyond the new monarch and his wife, although the local press assumes that the Princes of Wales will also be present.
First act since 2019
For the king emeritus, this will be the first act of an institutional nature in which he has participated since he left public life on June 2, 2019.
The former monarch did not want to give up the invitation that the British royal family sent him in his capacity as former head of state to be at the funeral of Elizabeth II, with whom he was also related, since both were great-great-grandchildren of the queen England victory.
The occasion has allowed Juan Carlos to meet again with other sovereigns who have also attended the reception, such as the kings of Sweden, those of Norway, those of Belgium or those of the Netherlands, as well as the queen of Denmark. The emperor of Japan, the kings of Jordan and some of the sovereigns of the Gulf countries, such as the emir of Qatar, have also traveled to London.
The kings and the emeritus will meet again on Monday at the funeral of the queen of England for seven decades in Westminster Abbey, although on that occasion it is not expected that, by protocol, the four will be seated together. Felipe, as head of state, should be sitting in the first rows of guests, not Juan Carlos.
Felipe and Letizia have traveled to London on a Spanish Air Force plane, together with Doña Sofía and accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, while Juan Carlos has arrived by his own means from Abu Dhabi, where he has installed your permanent residence.
In the British capital, the king and queen will stay at the residence of the Spanish ambassador, José Pascual Marco, while the emeritus will stay at the same hotel for “logistical and organizational reasons,” according to Zarzuela.
The Government has made it clear that the emeritus is not traveling to London on behalf of Spain, but by personal invitation. The spokeswoman, Isabel Rodríguez, avoided making any kind of assessment of the presence of Juan Carlos, although she stressed that the head of state is Felipe and therefore he is the one who heads the Spanish delegation.
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