Will the emeritus king go to Elizabeth II’s funeral? Government and Zarzuela will decide “the best representation”

Albares stresses that Felipe VI is the head of state and represents family ties with the British royal houseMoncloa and the Royal House will choose “the best representation”, says the Minister of Foreign Affairs and CooperationThe journalist Carlos Herrera has stated in his program that the king emeritus will not travel to London The Government together with the Royal House will decide “the best representation” of Spain for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, who died this Thursday at the age of 96, according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares. In an interview on RNE, Albares stressed that the details of what the funeral will be like are not yet known, so “it is not convenient to speculate.” Thus, he recalled that according to the protocol in the United Kingdom, the funeral is expected to take place in about ten days but it remains to be seen how it will be, if “private funerals” or national funerals are chosen and then it is extended to foreign leaders. For this reason, he has defended that we must wait for the invitation to arrive and then it will be “the Government with the Royal House that will decide the best representation” on the part of Spain. Will the king emeritus attend? Expressly asked if the The king emeritus could attend the funeral, Albares stressed that Felipe VI is currently the head of state and that, like his father, “he also represents the family ties” between the two royal houses. The journalist Carlos Herrera, who maintains a relationship close friendship with the ex-monarch has affirmed in his Cadena COPE program that D. Juan Carlos will not travel to London to say goodbye to the British sovereign. “On the Spanish side, King Felipe VI will attend (…) King Juan Carlos will not attend,” Herrera said. Don Juan Carlos, who has resided in the United Arab Emirates since August 2020, had a close relationship with the Queen of England, with whom he has blood ties. Both were great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria. Philip VI and his ties with Queen Elizabeth II Philip VI sent a telegram to the new King Charles III shortly after learning of Elizabeth II’s death to convey her condolences. Likewise, in an act in Seville, he praised the figure of the monarch, whom he defined as “one of the best queens of all time for her dignity, sense of duty, courage and dedication to her people.” Don Felipe maintained a close relationship with Elizabeth II, whom he affectionately called “Aunt Lilibet”, as do the rest of the members of the British royal family and as was made clear in the message of condolences that he and Queen Letizia sent to the sovereign after her death of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, in 2021. Both royal houses are linked by blood ties. The parents of Felipe VI, Don Juan Carlos and Doña Sofía, are great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria of England, as is Elizabeth II and her husband. In the case of King Felipe VI, his ties with the new King Carlos III of England are even narrower. Charles’s father, Philip of Edinburgh, was Queen Sophia’s second uncle. King George I of Greece was his grandfather and the great-grandfather of the Queen Emeritus. As for Juan Carlos I, his grandmother, Queen Victoria Eugenia, was a first cousin of the mother of the Duke of Edinburgh, Alicia of Battenberg. Relationship with the United Kingdom: Gibraltar and Truss On the other hand, Albares has been “confident” that both the new monarch Carlos III and the new prime minister, Liz Truss, who took office on Tuesday, “will know how to make the best decisions to this historical moment in which they take charge” of their respective positions. He has also been convinced that both will maintain the good relationship that the United Kingdom and Spain have maintained until now, driven by the special relationship between the two royal houses but also because both countries have been partners in the EU for decades and are still allies in NATO. As for Gibraltar, the minister has assured that Truss, who was foreign minister until Tuesday and therefore was in charge of the negotiations tions with the EU for the post-Brexit agreement on the Rock, shares with the Spanish Government the desire to create a “relationship model that creates an area of ​​shared prosperity in the Campo de Gibraltar”.