💰 The Day Spain Proclaimed Felipe VI King

(22/06/2014) Half way down the Calle Arenal, the royalist crowd spied a woman wrapped in a big tricolour republican flag and immediately began booing and insulting her loudly.

(Originally published on June 22, 2014)

At 7 a..m, as the sun began to rise over Madrid, the streets of the Spanish capital were locked down and lined with barriers and Spanish flags, but empty of people save for a few street sweepers and hundreds of policemen.

Behind the Congress building, in the Calle Zorilla, a long queue of journalists waited to pass through the very tightly controlled secret service security cordon. Agents opened up all of the computers to make sure they were really computers and no one was allowed to move around within the safe area without a police escort.

In front of the grand entrance to the Congress, decked in its ceremonial red awning hung over the steps and held aloft by dark red poles gilded with gold, soldiers, sailors and Civil Guards dressed for ceremonial duty were arriving as the red carpet was rolled out by workers past the two statues of lions that stand permanent guard.

Everyone was looking for coffee. On a bank holiday in Madrid, even Starbucks was closed. Some local residents were on their balconies having a leisurely breakfast. One balding man in a white t-shirt and blue shorts nonchalantly stretched and yawned as if the media and institutional circus below wasn’t there. A few journalists were setting up their cameras and sound gear inside the houses.

A helicopter circled low overhead.

At one point, two Civil Guard Land Rovers with the doors open and sirens and blue lights blaring raced up the street with the agents hanging out of the sides wearing sunglasses, their long weapons drawn at the ready.

This caught everyone’s attention as it is not normal at such moments to see lights blaring and weapons drawn like that. The agents pulled up beside the working entrance to the Congress, deployed around the vehicles in a protective arc, and a functionary got out of the black car carrying a crown-shaped box. The journalists giggled at the overly-theatrical protection detail for the royal headgear.

The gentleman politicians arrived in dark suits, the ladies dressed in morning white or cream, many wearing spring green dresses. The Agriculture Minister, Mrs. Tejerina, wore yellow in a nod to the colours of the Spanish flag. Mr Durán i Lleida, from Catalonia, was whistled and booed loudly by the small crowd of royal supporters who had gathered further down the street. Many of the politicians stopped in front of the lions and ceremonial awning to take photos of themselves.

Then the one helicopter became four and they flew down lower overhead. More secret service agents arrived and made sure everyone was in their place, and only in their assigned place. A military band struck up and the trumpets and drums sounded the Spanish national anthem from the top end of the street, accompanied by a stirring shout of “Viva!” from the guard, in response to the cry of: “Long Live Spain!”.

And His Majesty King Felipe VI of Spain walked down the street to the door of the Spanish Congress, accompanied by Queen Letizia, the Princess of Asturias, Leonor, her sister Sofia, and the Spanish Prime Minister, Mr. Rajoy. They greeted the Speakers of the Spanish Congress and Senate, Mr. Posada and Mr. García Escudero, turned to wave to the journalists to have their photo taken, and walked up the steps for the proclamation ceremony.

“One Man Is No More Than Another”

Once inside, the new King of Spain and his family greeted members of parliament and the government and were given a warm and sustained standing ovation upon entering the chamber, which had been specially prepared to seat the royal family, the joint ceremonial session of the Spanish parliament and some 200 invited guests.

The new king’s mother, Queen Sofia, and his sister, Princess Elena, were present, and the Spanish crown and royal sceptre were laid out before His Majesty.

The speaker of the Congress, Mr. Posada, made brief opening remarks praising the constitutional nature of the Spanish monarchy and the changes in Spanish society since Felipe VI’s father, Juan Carlos I, swore allegiance to Spain on November 22, 1975, two days after the death of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.

“Your Majesty, we know of your firm will to serve Spain well,” said Mr. Posada: “Parliament places great hopes in your new and demanding mission, and is sure that your Reign together with Queen Letizia will once more be a period of progress and stability for Spain, in which Spaniards will manage to successfully overcome the difficulties we face.”

The Speaker asked the king to swear allegiance to the constitution and shouted: “Long live the King!”, “Long live Spain!”.

In his speech to parliament, King Felipe VI further emphasised the constitutional nature of the Spanish monarchy, saying he was appearing before parliament: “to swear the allegiance laid down in our Constitution and be proclaimed King of Spain”, adding that: “today the reign of a constitutional king begins”.

He wished to highlight the unified nature of the Spanish state, in reference to the recent territorial problems in Catalonia and the Basque Country: “Unity is not uniformity, my ladies and gentlemen, since in 1978 the constitution recognised our diversity as one of the characteristics that defines our own identity, proclaiming its will to protect all the peoples of Spain, their cultures and traditions, languages and institutions. It is a diversity that is borne of our history, ennobles us and must strengthen us”.

Mr. Mas, the first minister of Catalonia, and Mr. Urkullu, the first minister of the Basque Country, notably did not applaud His Majesty’s comments, although they did, in the end, attend the proclamation ceremony.

Felipe VI made reference to the long economic crisis Spaniards have suffered: “those citizens who have been hard struck by the rigour of the economic crisis, to the point of seeing their dignity as people wounded”, reflecting his father’s comments two-and-a-half weeks previously in the abdication speech.

He exhorted those authorities present to work loyally together around common challenges created by the 21st Century: “Because a nation is not just its history, it is also an integrating project, felt and shared by all, that looks towards the future”.

His Majesty ended by quoting Cervantes, in the words of Don Quijote: “one man is no more than another, unless he does more than another”.

Trumpets, Drums & Long Live Spain!

An hour after they went in, Felipe VI, Queen Letizia, the young Princess of Asturias and her sister Sofia walked back down the steps of Congress, surrounded now by the entire Spanish institutional power structure, to preside over the military parade in honour of the newly-proclaimed King of Spain.

The trumpets and drums sounded once more and filled the air with music, along with the crunch of soldiers’ boots as they marched down the Carrera de San Jerónimo.

The King saluted smartly as the colours of the band were marched past.

The officer leading the king’s guard gave a terse command to his men to focus their attention and lower the colours in respect, and then shouted out Spain’s patriotic clarion call: “Vi–Va–España!”.

“Viva!”, his soldiers roared back.

The Spanish flag was marched past, and His Majesty and the heads of the Spanish Armed Forces bowed their heads in respect whilst saluting it.

Thrice more the air filled with patriotic shouts of: “Viva!” as companies of the Spanish Navy, Air Force and the Civil Guard—in their famous tricorne hats—paraded before their new king,

The helicopters clattered lower and Felipe VI stepped down from the podium to talk to the government, lined up to his right, and His Majesty turned with the Queen and the princesses to wave to the journalists and to the crowds further down the street.

As the crowd shouted its support: “Fe-li-pe! Fe-li-pe!”, the mounted royal guard trotted down on its horses in front of the Rolls Royce Phantom that was to drive the King and Queen through the streets of Madrid. In the end, it was open-topped, with no protection.

The secret service took up positions to protect the car, and His Majesty helped the Queen to step in. He chose to stand, they waved to the photographers once more, he made sure his cap was securely in place and they were driven slowly down towards Neptuno, to loud applause from the assembled members of parliament and authorities, and to louder chants of support from the crowd.

The very tight security measures in central Madrid, including the prohibition of republican flags and symbols along the route and in surrounding streets, as well as the bank holiday, meant many spots—from Neptuno to Cibeles, up Alcalá and down the Gran Vía to the Plaza de España—were nearly empty of supporters.

Unedited television footage and aerial photographs suggest there were certainly tens of thousands of royal fans lining the streets of the Spanish capital, but probably not hundreds of thousands.

“Fe-li-pe! Fe-li-pe!”

In the race out of the security area surrounding Congress to get to the Royal Palace in time, the streets were first deserted inside the cordon, and then full of crowds flowing down the Calle Arenal, from the Puerta del Sol to Ópera and on to the Plaza de Oriente, directly in front of the palace.

In the end, the Puerta del Sol itself was cordoned off after republican groups insisted on calling a protest there at the hour of the new king’s open-top drive through central Madrid, despite a government ban.

The Spanish authorities opted for a more practical prohibition and display of power, turning the square into a makeshift operational base for riot police and emergency services. It was filled with mobile command centres, riot police vans, ambulances and fire trucks.

Half way down the Calle Arenal, the royalist crowd spied a woman wrapped in a big tricolour republican flag and immediately began booing and insulting her loudly. Three policemen jumped out of their patrol car and shoved her into a side street: “for her own protection; we are not going to arrest her”.

Around Ópera, the crowds were big enough to have completely blocked any further passage towards the Royal Palace, and the police stepped in to break up the flow and prevent an avalanche of people crushing some. They blocked access entirely, for royal fans, local residents and reporters alike at first, although a group of journalists was able to get through in the end.

The Plaza de Oriente was full of people joyously waving Spanish flags and proudly chanting their patriotism and support for their new king.

“Long live Spain! Long live Felipe VI!”, and even: “Long live the constitutional monarchy!”, which is not a chant you hear everyday in Spain.

The crowd roared with approval and joy when King Felipe, Queen Letizia, the Princess of Asturias and Princess Sofia came out on to the balcony of the Royal Palace to wave, and roared again when they were joined by King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia.

“Fe-li-pe! Fe-li-pe! Es-pa-ña! Es-pa-ña!”.

Their Majesties went inside to receive more than 2,000 distinguished guests and the crowds outside began to disperse for lunch, snapping photos and giving interviews to the dozens of international journalists grabbing quotes for their chronicles and TV footage.

A Sour Republican Note To End The Day

By 6 p.m., the TV crews were packing up outside the palace and the tourists milling around taking photos. The Puerta del Sol was still cordoned off, to the surprise of one policeman who said they should have packed everything up and gone home by 2 p.m.

Around 8 p.m., a few hundred republican protestors did finally turn up, peacefully waving their tricolour republican flags and chanting anti-monarchy slogans. They were shoved and beaten by the riot police anyway, and seven arrests were made, including that of Jorge Verstrynge, a former Spanish MP and former secretary general of Alianza Popular.

The Spanish authorities were unwilling to allow any pro-republic demonstration to last for very long on the day Spaniards proclaimed Felipe VI the new King of Spain.

💰 Subscribe now:

• 🔥 Understand the stories changing Spain better

• 📝 Access all the articles & 💬 Substack chat with Matthew

• 💪 Guarantee this independent reporting & analysis