The Diplomat
King Philip VI and Queen Letizia will travel to Vienna on January 31, at the invitation of Austrian Federal President Alexander van Der Bellen and his wife, Doris Schmidauer.
This visit, the first one made by the King and Queen of Spain to Austria and their third state trip since the pandemic began (after the ones they made to Andorra in March 2021 in preparation for the Ibero-American Summit and to Sweden last November) is framed “within the good relations that both countries maintain and constitutes a propitious opportunity to express the desire to continue strengthening the deep historical, political, cultural and human ties between Austria and Spain”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed yesterday in a press release.
During this brief visit, the King and Queen will hold a working meeting with their hosts at the headquarters of the Austrian Federal Presidency. This is the second meeting between the King and Van der Bellen since the latter’s arrival to the Presidency, just five years ago. Philip VI received Van der Bellen in December 2019 at La Zarzuela Palace, on the occasion of the Austrian president’s presence in Spain to attend the XXV United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25). Likewise, the King held a telephone conversation with the Austrian President on April 14, 2020, to discuss the evolution of the pandemic (in the midst of confinement due to the first wave of COVID-19).
In addition, the King and Queen will inaugurate the exhibition Dalí y Freud. Una obsesión (Dalí and Freud. An obsession), at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna. The exhibition, which will open on January 28 and end on May 29 and is curated by Professor Jaime Brihuega, explores the relationship between Salvador Dalí and Sigmund Freud and thus the reciprocal influence between surrealism and psychoanalysis. Dalí was able to meet Freud personally in 1938, a year before the death of the Viennese scientist.
The King and Queen of Spain will also have the opportunity to pay tribute to all the victims of Nazism and especially to the Spanish victims of Mauthausen. During the visit, Philip VI and Letizia will be accompanied by the Minister of Culture and Sport, Miquel Iceta.
