• 2021 The Royal Family's private holidays kick off in Marivent

The electoral advance of Pedro Sánchez compromises all the institutions of the State, including the Monarchy. If the King's summer is increasingly complicated, with elections on July 23, the King's possibilities of rest are very limited according to the calendar.

The Royal Family has the habit of spending the first week of August in Palma de Mallorca. There, installed in the palace of Marivent, which the Balearic authorities give them in summer, the Kings combine rest with institutional activity. Don Felipe goes sailing at the Club Náutico to participate in the Copa del Rey Mapfre de Vela, but he also maintains a summer office with the President of the Government and receives the authorities and representatives of Balearic civil society. They are appointments that, for the moment, this year are maintained.

Private holidays

The custom marks that after enjoying the Copa del Rey Mapfre, the Kings spend a few more days in Marivent until they leave for private vacations, in which it is unknown where they are. It is a period of rest that they usually spend in other parts of the Mediterranean and with their family. That time off is always done with the condition of being less than a few hours from Spain, in case something happens that requires the immediate presence of the Head of State, as in August 2017, after the attacks on the ramblas in Barcelona.

Before the call for elections, the Royal House already knew that this year's break would be short just by looking at the calendar. The regattas end on Saturday, August 5, and the King is scheduled to attend the inauguration of Santiago Peña, the new president of Paraguay, on the 15th. Don Felipe is always present in the transfer of the baton of command of Latin American leaders, he is a Head of State whose presence is fixed in these acts, in which the ties between Spain and Ibero-America are highlighted.

Two days later, on the 17th, the Cortes were constituted and the Princess of Asturias began military training. The desire of the Kings is that Doña Leonor is one more student in Zaragoza, so, if she complies with the admission protocol of the rest of the ladies and gentlemen cadets, the Heiress will go with her parents to the General Military Academy. There, while the Princess completes the procedures and collects her uniform, the Kings will be able to visit the facilities with the rest of the parents and then say goodbye until six weeks later, when the camp ends and they have the first permit.

If the Kings accompany their daughter to the Academy, it is very likely that that same day or the next day, the acting president of the Congress, Meritxell Batet, will hold an audience with Don Felipe. After that meeting, the socialist will send you a list with the representatives of each political group. Don Felipe must holda meeting with all the political parties that have obtained institutional representation. No law regulates when the Monarch must make these hearings, but logic suggests that it will be at the end of August when the King, following the precedents of his previous rounds of contacts, will meet over two days with all the representatives of political parties. Don Felipe usually dedicates 45 minutes to each candidate.

After listening to all the leaders, the King will again receive the president of the Congress and will inform her, if there is a candidate who has the necessary support, who is the ideal person who will be commissioned to form a Government. Don Felipe, however, will not have all the information, because if the pro-independence political groups obtain representation they usually plant the head of state in this appointment. In any case, since Don Felipe flies to Paraguay on August 14, he will have returned to institutional activity.

  • Philip VI
  • Royal House

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Learn more