King Juan Carlos, who has been residing in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) since August 2020, will not attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. It will be King Felipe who will represent Spain at the ceremony that is expected to be held in London in ten days. This has been implied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, when asked in an interview on RNE about whether the King Emeritus could be part of the Spanish representation at the ceremony, given his relationship with the Queen of England . Albares has stressed that King Felipe is the Spanish head of state, and “also represents family ties.” Along the same lines, the journalist Carlos Herrera, who has a close relationship with King Juan Carlos, has indicated that he will not attend. “On the Spanish side, King Felipe VI will attend (…) King Juan Carlos will not attend,” Herrera said on his program at Cope.
Minister Albares has asked not to “speculate” regarding who will make up the Spanish representation at the funeral of Elizabeth II. The foreign minister has defended that we will have to wait to receive the invitation and find out the details of what the ceremony will be like to make a decision on the matter. “We do not know any details. As is always done in these cases, the Government, with the Royal House, is going to decide on the best representation. We have a head of state who is Felipe VI,” he stressed. “It is very clear who is the head of state,” he stressed, also pointing out that King Felipe “also represents family ties” between the Spanish and British royal houses, linked genealogically by Queen Victoria.
Queen Victoria of England was the great-great-grandmother of both Kings Juan Carlos and Sofia, as well as Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Duke Philip of Edinburgh.
Albares has also expressed his confidence that the Spanish Government will continue to have “the closest possible relationship” with the United Kingdom after the death of Elizabeth II, since it continues to be “a very important country for Europe” after its departure from the European Union , especially in terms of security.
