Luis Ayllón
The diplomat Camilo Villarino will be the new head of His Majesty the King’s Household, replacing Jaime Alfonsín, who has been in the service of Don Felipe for almost thirty years.
The announcement of the change was made yesterday by the Zarzuela Palace, through a communiqué in which it is stated that the King has taken the decision to relieve Jaime Alfonsín Alfonso as head of his Household and to appoint Camilo Villarino Marzo to this position. The replacement will take place during the month of February.
The decision was taken by Felipe VI in accordance with the provisions of article 65.2 of the Constitution, which states that “the King freely appoints and removes the civilian and military members of his Household”.
Alfonsín, 67 years old, has spent almost three decades in the service of Don Felipe, first as Head of His Secretariat (1995-2014), while Prince of Asturias, and then as Head of His Household (2014-2024) after his proclamation before the Cortes Generales.
The Zarzuela communiqué states, in relation to Alfonsín, that “His Majesty wishes to continue to count on his valuable and loyal advice, for which purpose he will appoint him as Privy Councillor and, in this capacity, will continue to provide him with the advice he requires and perform the functions he entrusts to him”.
Camilo Villarino, born in Zaragoza in 1964, entered the diplomatic service in 1989 and, since October 2022, has headed the Cabinet of the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell.
He is considered to be a very meticulous professional in the tasks he has carried out, which have led him to be head of the Cabinet of three Foreign Affairs ministers. First, in 2017, of Alfonso Dastis, with a PP government; then with Josep Borrell, after the arrival of Pedro Sánchez to the government; and, subsequently, with Arancha González Laya, also with a Socialist government.
It was precisely during her time with González Laya that the most disturbing incident in her diplomatic career took place, when the government decided to welcome the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, to a Spanish hospital, which caused Morocco to recall its ambassador to Madrid for consultations.
Following legal proceedings on the legality of the Sahrawi leader’s entry into Spain, Camilo Villarino was absolved of any responsibility, but the whole process led Sánchez and José Manuel Albares, who had taken over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to withdraw the decision to appoint him as ambassador to Moscow, even though Russia had already been asked to give its approval.
Aware of his experience in European affairs, Borrell called him, months later, to put him at the head of his Cabinet. Between 2002 and 2008, Villarino was Deputy Director General for Institutional Affairs for the European Union at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he was in charge of the negotiations of the new European Union Treaties, as well as having been posted to the Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU.
He was also posted to Croatia and the United States, and served as second-in-command of the Spanish Embassy in Morocco.
Is also an officer in the Volunteer Reserve of the Spanish Army with the rank of captain, currently assigned to the Headquarters of the Military Emergency Unit (UME), according to the biographical information provided by Zarzuela.
As head of the King’s Household, Camilo Villarino has the rank of minister, and occupies a position of the utmost confidence of the Monarch, who is about to celebrate ten years on the throne this year. Yesterday, on her social network account X, former minister Arancha González Laya, congratulated him on his appointment and said it was a “well-deserved recognition of a public servant with a sense of state, professional, discreet and loyal – a great example of the best of Spanish diplomacy”.
