Felipe VI asks to talk about discrepancies with respect

Armando G. Tejeda

Correspondent

La Jornada Newspaper
Saturday, October 5, 2024, p. 6

Madrid. King Felipe VI referred for the first time, although indirectly, to the open diplomatic crisis with Mexico as a result of requests for forgiveness for the abuses and plunder perpetrated during the Conquest and the colonial era. The monarch asked speak frankly about our inevitable disagreements out of respect for friendship. Furthermore, in the Congress of Deputies, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the socialist José Manuel Albares, reiterated his refusal to apologize to our country and insisted that the government of Pedro Sánchez will defend the figure and the institution that the Spanish monarch represents.

King Felipe VI did not respond in 2019 to the letter sent to him by former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador in which he asked for a gesture of forgiveness towards the indigenous peoples of Mexico. The monarch, who has no executive powers, limited himself to letting the Spanish government, chaired by the socialist Pedro Sánchez, maneuver on this matter, who, together with his then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, decided not to answer the letter, supposedly to avoid useless controversies.

After the triumph of the new President, Claudia Sheinbaum, the crisis was revived as a result of the monarch’s non-invitation to the inauguration on October 1, with which President Sánchez decided that in view of this rejection of the head of State Spanish would not send any official representative to the event.

Since then, Felipe VI has not had any public event until yesterday, when he inaugurated the meeting of Academies of History of the Latin American countries, among which there were representatives of Mexico, Venezuela and Argentina, countries with which Spain has diplomatic crises.

Bonds of affection and brotherhood

The monarch recalled a part of his first speech as king, in which he noted that We are united by history and very intense ties of affection and brotherhood with the Ibero-American countries. In recent decades, we have also been united by growing economic ties and increasingly closer global visions. But above all we are united by our shared language and culture. An asset of immense value that we must enhance with determination and generosity.

And then he referred, although in a veiled way, to the crisis with Mexico: “We, Ibero-Americans, are a unity in diversity, a culture of cultures. Our relationship is so deep that it even allows us to speak frankly about our possible disagreements – inevitable, moreover, in so many centuries of shared history – but always with respect based on friendship.”

In another forum, in the Spanish Parliament, Minister Albares appeared and explicitly referred to the open crisis with Mexico: If the head of state is not invited, Spain is not invited. I will always defend the Spanish institutions. I do it with the government of Argentina, when it comes to the presidency of the government, no matter how much it may be against the Popular Party (PP), no matter how much it may be against the people of Vox. I also do it with the government of Mexico, when it is the head of state and I also do it with the government of Venezuela, when it is the Parliament..

Albares also pointed out that There are debates that are legitimate, that we have among Spaniards, but we cannot allow a third party to come and tell us what to do. Always ally against Spain, with any third party; never defend Spanish institutions or the president of the government when he is being insulted.

The spokesperson for the left-wing Sumar coalition in the Foreign Commission, Agustín Santos, who is also part of the central government, urged the Executive to find a creative solution to address the crisis, regretting that for five years nothing has been done on this matter and not even a formal response has been made. Creative solutions could have been found such as the establishment of a joint commission of historians or any formula that allows us to jointly debate these problems and prevent Spain from not being represented because it has not been possible to prevent the king from being not invited..

From Podemos, the deputy Javier Sánchez Serna described capital error the absence of government representation at the inauguration, which he attributed to the errors of the Royal Housethat is why he assured that It’s not that difficult to ask for forgiveness. But how is the king of Spain going to ask for forgiveness if he is the direct heir of a dictator and our darkest and darkest past?

From the coalition of the Basque independence left, EH-Bildu, deputy Jon Iñarritu, said for his part that Spain must make a critical reading of the Spanish colonial past, just as 10 years ago it already recognized what the expulsion of the Jews from Spain meant. That does not make Spain a worse country.