In 1990, a young Felipe de Borbón, Prince of Asturias and Girona, gave a long interview to the writer Baltasar Porcel for La Vanguardia. It constituted an exceptional document, because it is very atypical for members of the Royal Family to grant them. It was published on April 20, the day on which a visit to Catalan lands began, organized at the suggestion of Jordi Pujol to highlight the links between the Crown and Catalonia. “As heir to the Crown, as a descendant of the counts of Barcelona, ??I am proud of everything Catalan,” said Felipe, who recalled being “as much an heir of James the Conqueror as of Charles V or Philip V, which forces me to assume the past as a totality, without good or bad or separations between the one and the other.”
That young prince, two years later, paraded in Barcelona as the flag bearer of the Spanish team at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
Three decades later, King Felipe VI smiled and perhaps got emotional for a moment on Monday night when he saw himself on the screen, captured in that magical moment of the unforgettable year 1992, in the video that accompanied the tribute to Juan Antonio Samaranch.
Felipe de Borbón, who has frequently visited Barcelona, ??was in the current editorial office of La Vanguardia in November 2004, accompanied by his wife, Princess Letizia, who had been a brilliant information professional before their wedding. They toured the different sections of the newspaper and demonstrated their familiarity with the techniques, objectives and routines of journalism.
The day before yesterday, in his speech at the Vanguardia Awards, the King recalled that the Godó family newspaper “has adapted to the great changes that journalism has experienced,” and has achieved this by “being faithful to values ??transmitted from generation to generation.” ”.
The Kings, also concerned with adapting the institution they embody to the changes and needs of the time while remaining faithful to clear underlying values, are attentive readers of the press and closely follow the current problems of the sector. Felipe VI recalled that “free societies need good, serious, analytical and reflective journalism, and this can only flourish in freedom.” He encouraged all of us who are part of the newspaper “to continue contributing with your professional demands to maintain your commitment.” And he welcomed the “special sensitivity of remembering and highlighting the determining role played by two great Catalans, two great Spaniards in our recent history, Juan Antonio Samaranch and Josep Piqué. His inspiring legacy of service, of love for his land and his country, accompany us at all times.”
The King, Barcelona, ??Catalonia, awards for social and cultural excellence and the not gratuitous memory of the Olympic moment as inspiration for a creative and constructive future – a message in itself –, all of this reflected in the journalism of La Vanguardia, so veteran and so new. Everything fit together, before a transversal audience that represented very diverse sensibilities of Catalan society. Among that audience was the now nonagenarian, and debated, Jordi Pujol, who in the eighties, as president of the Generalitat, went to Zarzuela to request that the prince officially travel to Barcelona and Girona, and with whom the monarchs stopped to talk for a few minutes. The wheel of History.