Felipe VI and the Emir of Qatar: the forced attendance of the King at the World Cup, only in the face of danger

• Trip Felipe VI takes advantage of his stay in Qatar to meet with the Emir and Spanish businessmen

Hundreds of millions of viewers around the world followed the opening ceremony of the controversial World Cup being played in Qatar on television last Sunday.

And the scarce representation of leaders who wrapped up the Emir

, the

that floats in gas and oil, did not go unnoticed.

Along with a

, several members of Arab royalty stood out: the king of Jordan, the ruler of Dubai or the crown prince of Kuwait.

Also, and above all, the

, Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, to stage the

after a few years of stormy relations that shook the entire geopolitical tableau of the always sensitive Gulf.

Western leaders declined

including members of European royal families, despite the close ties many have to the Al Thani.

As already happened in 2018 with the

equally controversial

had plenty of reasons to stage a kind of

that surrounds the sporting competition itself.

But for the dynasties of the Old Continent this football event in Qatar has become a

.

It is not being easy for them to combine the demonstration of the maximum sensitivity that public opinions demand today in the rejection of a regime like the Qatari that does not respect human rights,

and

with the reason of State that obliges them to maintain the best relations with the Al Thani.

The king greets the players of the Spanish National Team after the match.GTRE

To the surprise and scandal of many, the first member of European royalty to break that tacit boycott was the King of Spain.

And, although the 7-0 scoreline caused such euphoria that for a few hours in our country the whole world seemed to forget about human rights and the trampling of freedoms,

Commentators in the media or tweeters launched all kinds of outbursts against the King.

In the networks you could read messages like "the Monarchy only thinks of its own pocket."

Don Felipe 's

further raised the tone of the darts.

In such visceral debates there was no room to explain the extraordinary interests that Spain has in Qatar, a country whose investments and participation in some of our strategic companies are manna that we cannot do without.

But

Increased, in addition, by the

, positioned in profile as if it had nothing to do with the King's decision to go to Qatar in defense of national interests.

It is hard to understand that from Zarzuela they fell into the trap

and that it was admitted that Don Felipe ate only the brown, flying to Doha without even the company of the Minister of Sports, Miquel Iceta, a homosexual who has always claimed

and whose presence together to the King in Qatar would have at least conveyed a more digestible message for the preservation of the good name of the Crown.

Don Felipe's options were not many.

The King had not only received, like so many other leaders, invitations from the emirate through formal channels.

Rather, the emir himself was insistent in his appeal to Don Felipe to attend the World Cup when he made a state visit to our country in May.

And it is often forgotten that, as is customary in bilateral relations, in a short time it will be

to close what is called the

How to make an ugly emir.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• Qatar

• Felipe VI