Eduardo González
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has acknowledged its displeasure with Zarzuela for not having informed it of King Felipe VI’s intention not to attend the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, but official sources from the Department headed by José Manuel Albares have assured The Diplomat that everything has been “spoken and clarified” between the two parties.
This past Monday, the People’s Party (PP) criticised the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, for not having attended the reopening ceremony of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and the national spokesperson for the PP, Borja Sémper, even regretted that at least the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, had not attended.
Albares himself was asked about this issue on Tuesday during the press conference after the Council of Ministers, but it was the Government spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, who took the floor to try to downplay this “artificial controversy” and to clarify that the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, had sent “nominal and non-transferable invitations” to other heads of State, including the King, but finally Felipe VI and Urtasun – who was also invited by his French counterpart, Rachida Dati – could not attend “due to agenda issues”.
According to the sources, Albares found out about the invitation to the King and the subsequent fuss in the press, which has caused great discomfort in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was not informed that the King was not planning to attend the ceremony and, therefore, could not compensate for this absence with the participation of another member of the Government.
According to the sources, Albares has taken advantage of his participation in the State trip of the King and Queen to Italy, which began this Tuesday, to ask the members of the Royal House for the appropriate explanations during the flight. After this conversation, everything has been “discussed and clarified and there is nothing more to add,” they specified, without further details.
