Felipe VI angers the far right by acknowledging “great abuse” during the colonial period in Mexico

Eduardo González If on October 31st it was Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares who recalled the “pain and injustice suffered by the indigenous peoples,” this time it was none other than King Felipe VI who acknowledged that, despite the “protective intent” of the Laws of the Indies, there was “great abuse” during that period. These words have outraged MEP Hermann Tertsch of Vox, who responded to the Monarch by praising the Spanish conquest of America, that “colossal and glorious work of Spain dedicated to the greater glory of the Church of Rome and the Spanish Crown.” “There are things that, when we study them and understand them, tell us that, according to our current criteria and values, they obviously cannot make us proud,” the King commented during a visit to the exhibition “Women in Indigenous Mexico,” organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) at the National Archaeological Museum. He was accompanied by, among others, the Mexican ambassador to Spain, Quirino Ordaz. “We must understand them within their proper context, not with excessive moralizing, but with an objective and rigorous analysis, and learn lessons, because there have also been struggles in moral and ethical controversies regarding how power is exercised from day one,” he continued, as shown in a video of the visit shared by the Royal Household's account on the social network X. “With the Reyes Católicos (Catholic Monarchs), with their directives, the Laws of the Indies, the entire legislative process, there was a desire for protection,” but “then reality meant that it wasn't fulfilled as intended, and there was a great deal of abuse,” he added. “The greatest glory of the Church of Rome and the Spanish Crown” “Your Majesty, my King Felipe VI, with all due respect, I remind you that there is ‘much abuse’ now being perpetrated by a criminal government that is plundering the Spanish people, has corrupted the entire state administration, steals relentlessly, and also constantly harasses, marginalizes, and attacks the institution that Your Majesty represents,” wrote Hermann Tertsch, a Member of the European Parliament from the far-right Vox party, on the social network X. “In America, in the immense undertaking that began with the end of the Reconquista, the end of the Muslim presence, and the glorious leap across the Atlantic to New Spain, there was, above all else, a civilizational miracle full of generosity, piety, ingenuity, service to the Spanish, indigenous people, and mestizos, and devotion to the Crown of Spain,” he continued. “The possible abuses that exist in any human community are insignificant compared to the abuses perpetrated by the inhabitants of those lands and compared to the colossal and glorious work of Spain dedicated to the greater glory of the Church of Rome and the Spanish Crown,” he proclaimed. “Frankly, many of us do not understand his formal and almost habitual adherence to the arguments of those who only seek to harm and bring contempt upon the history of Spain and the present of Spaniards,” he concluded. Albares On October 31, Albares declared, also during a visit to an exhibition (in this case, “Half the World: Women in Indigenous Mexico,” also organized by the Ministry and AECID at the Cervantes Institute in Madrid), that during the shared history between Spain and Mexico “there has also been pain, pain and injustice toward the indigenous peoples to whom this exhibition is dedicated.” “There was injustice, it is right to acknowledge it today and it is right to lament it, because that is also part of our shared history and we cannot deny or forget it,” he added. Those words outraged the People's Party, which demanded Albares' resignation "if he does not retract them immediately." In contrast, Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party has not yet reacted to the King's remarks. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum excluded King Felipe VI from the guest list for her inauguration (October 1, 2024) because he had not responded to a letter from his predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, urging him to apologize for the Spanish conquest. The Spanish government called this decision "unacceptable" and announced it would not participate in the inauguration "at any level." Last October, the Mexican president asserted that her country had not severed "any ties" with Spain, but insisted that her government was still "awaiting a response" to López Obrador's letter to the King.

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