Felipe VI will not attend the event prepared by the Government on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Francisco Franco. The head of state was invited by Moncloa but will not be able to attend, according to Executive sources, due to scheduling reasons. That day you have to receive the credentials of the new ambassadors.
“The King will not attend due to agenda reasons and will join the anniversary initiative by participating in several of the planned events, such as the institutional visit to the former concentration camps of Auschwitz and Mauthausen or the event that will commemorate the important role played by the monarchy in the Transition,” sources from Moncloa have reported.
The Government will organize next Wednesday, January 8, at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, an event to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the dictator’s death, with the motto ‘Spain in freedom’. It is actually the first of an extensive “program of activities” with a formative spirit to tell young people in educational centers made during the Second Republic and the Franco dictatorship.
A few days ago, Moncloa sent an invitation to the kings, but until now the Royal House had not formally communicated whether it could attend or not. “A broad and representative sample of Spanish society has been invited to the event: businessmen, unions, academics, members of the Government and the Cortes, NGOs, associations and other entities of civil society,” La Moncloa reported in a message in who have explained that they will not be able to attend due to scheduling reasons, although they explain that they will attend several of the events that are planned.
“HM the King and the President of the Government had the opportunity to discuss this and other issues this week and have been able to confirm their alignment on the matter,” these sources report.
The Government had already announced that if the king could not finally attend the event it would be due to “scheduling difficulties.” This was justified this Thursday in an interview on Cadena SER, the Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, who although he did not know whether the monarch would attend or not, assured that if it were a decision that depended exclusively on the king, ” “I would be without a doubt.”
On the day he announced the celebration of the event to mark the 50th anniversary of Franco’s death, Sánchez indicated that this battery of events that will follow will focus on “cultural activities, events, schools or museums,” while announcing the creation “of a special commissioner, a scientific committee of experts” and “collaboration with all public administrations” for the execution of the program.
The PP despises the acts
The person who will not attend this type of event either, although not for agenda reasons, is the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who a few days ago attacked the Government’s initiative. “How lazy they are!” he said in the last speech of the year before the National Executive Committee. “They, to Spain with Franco, because they are already as old as him. And we, to Spain without Sánchez, which is Spain with a future. They, with their bitterness, return to the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s,” he said just before.
The party’s spokesman in Congress, Miguel Tellado, also criticized this type of act this week in a press conference. “The President of the Government,” he said, “needs Franco more alive than ever.” “Anyone will remember that Franco died in bed on November 20, 1975. I don’t know what is celebrated on January 8, 2025. I suppose it was the phlebitis that the dictator suffered,” he ironized.
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