The King and his father, King Juan Carlos, greeted each other this morning at the Vitoria airport, where they both met after the landing of their respective planes. King Juan Carlos, who traveled this morning from Geneva to Vitoria, landed at the Alava airport at 11:08, ten minutes before the official plane in which the King flew from Madrid to Vitoria to then travel to Hernani ( Guipuzcoa) where he had an official event. The King and his father met briefly on the track, greeted each other affectionately, according to eyewitnesses, and subsequently both headed to their respective destinations: King Juan Carlos to visit his doctors and the King to Hernani to attend the centenary events of Eduardo Chillida. The last time father and son saw each other was on April 8, in Madrid, at the funeral for Fernando Gómez-Acebo.
After the medical visit, the King’s father will fly to Galicia with the intention of participating this weekend in the new test of the Spanish Championship regattas in the 6M class. The difference, on this occasion, is that this afternoon instead of landing at the Vigo airport he will land at the Santiago de Compostela airport, since the first one is closed for works. From Santiago, the King’s father will go to Sanxenxo (Pontevedra) where he will remain until Sunday. The visit of the King’s father coincides with the 62nd anniversary of his wedding to Sofia of Greece, which took place in Athens on May 14, 1962.
What begins today is the fourth visit of the King’s father to Spain so far this year; two to Sanxexo (March 13 and April 17) and one to Madrid, where he was between April 5 and 8 to attend the wedding of the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, and the funeral of his nephew Fernando Gómez-Acebo.
The new visit of King Juan Carlos, in addition to his 62nd wedding anniversary, coincides with the second anniversary of what was his first return to Spain since he went into self-exile in Abu Dhabi in August 2020. Since that first trip, which he did not repeat Until a year later, the visits of King Juan Carlos’s father have become normal and, above all, media attention has been reduced. In 2022, King Juan Carlos traveled to Spain only once; In 2023 he did it four times and four are also what he already adds in 2024, with the intention of repeating it once a month (except August) until November.
During his previous stay, between April 17 and 21, King Juan Carlos, due to a cold, barely left the house of his host, Pedro Campos, and although he went to the Sanxenxo yacht club to visit his companions of crew, did not go out to sail.
The first trip, which took place between April 19 and 23, 2022, did not meet the expected requirements of discretion and privacy and only fueled the controversy over the actions of the previous head of state in recent years. of his reign. The trip concluded with an hours-long visit to the Zarzuela, where the King asked him to avoid media exposure in the future.
In September 2022, the first photo of the King was taken with his father, King Juan Carlos, when both, along with Queen Letizia and Queen Sofía, sat together at the funeral for Queen Isabel II that was officiated. in Westminster Abbey, London. Months later, in January, they would meet again in Athens at the funeral and burial of Constantine of Greece.
Last year, after the fiasco of his first visit to Sanxenxo, King Juan Carlos tried to give discretion to his visits and achieved a certain normalization in his four visits to Sanxenxo (in April, July, September and October) and also traveled two times more to Madrid. The first, not without controversy, had the objective of attending the family celebration for Princess Leonor’s 18th birthday on October 31 that took place in El Pardo, although she was not present at any of the institutional events. On December 20, she returned to celebrate, in a restaurant in Madrid, the 60th birthday of Infanta Elena, who managed to seat her father and her brother at the same table.
So far in 2024, King Felipe and his father have met twice; the first on February 27, in Windsor (Great Britain) where both attended the mass in memory of King Constantine of Greece. There an unprecedented image occurred, when the King offered his arm to his father so that she could support him when walking; A month and a half later, father and son met again in Madrid, at the funeral for Fernando Gómez-Acebo.
