The last time there was an institutional meeting between the king of Spain and the mayor of Barcelona was in 2006; Juan Carlos I was the head of the Crown and Jordi Hereu, the first mayor of the city council of the Catalan capital. On Monday, the current mayor, Jaume Collboni, will be received by King Felipe VI at the Albéniz palace in an audience that will also be a gesture of institutional normalization of Barcelona with the Crown, after a period marked by the decision of the previous mayor, Ada Colau, for not participating in the events in which the head of state was present.
Ada Colau, mayor of Barcelona between 2015 and 2023, stopped exercising her institutional functions before the Royal House as a result of the independence process and, joining the boycott of the representatives of the Generalitat, refused to participate in the official reception of the King in events such as the Mobile Word Congress and stopped attending most of the events presided over by the King, including the two occasions on which the Princess of Girona awards were presented in Barcelona. In 2018, Colau ordered the image of Felpe VI to be removed from the plenary hall, a decision that was appealed by the municipal group of the PP that, in 2021, achieved the restitution of the portrait to which the mayor responded, presiding over the municipal plenary session, wearing a mask Republican.
Ada Colau’s rudeness to the head of state has been continuous in practically all of her two mandates, with the exception of the first year (2016) in which she attended normally, like other authorities, including the then president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont.
On most of the occasions in which Colau was absent from the events attended by the King, it was Jaume Collboni, in his capacity as deputy mayor, who represented the mayor of Barcelona.
King Felipe VI will visit Barcelona next Monday, where, as usual, he will hold various audiences in what is his official residence in the city. In addition to Jaume Collboni, in the morning he will receive the executive committee of Seat; to Grant Dalton, CEO of Emirates Teeam New Zealand and the Sailing America’s Cup to be held in Barcelona. In the afternoon, the King will receive the artistic swimming and men’s and women’s water polo teams that will participate in the Fukuoka 2023 World Championship at the Albéniz.
The day will close with the attendance of the King, accompanied by Queen Letizia, at the delivery of the first edition of the La Vanguardia awards that will take place at the National Museum of Art of Catalonia (MNAC). The last time the Kings were in Catalonia was last July when, together with Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofia, they attended the events programmed by the Princess of Girona Foundation. The King, alone, was in Barcelona on May 30 to attend the Cercle d’Economia conference.
