Pedro Sánchez launched a message of “memory and affection” on Pope Francis on Tuesday, whom he considered “a friend of Spain” and a “moral and spiritual reference.” “A leader who advocated the fight against poverty, for a humanistic look of the phenomenon of migration, mitigation and adaptation to climate change or against intolerance when I was most missing.” “The world is going to miss its value and its message,” he said, to point out that in Spain he would be honored.
However, just a few hours later the reason advanced that the president of the Spanish Government would not be integrated into the Spanish delegation that will travel to the Vatican this Saturday to attend the pontiff’s funeral. It will be the first vice president, María Jesús Montero, who attends as the highest representative of the Government, accompanying the kings Felipe VI and Letizia, who will be the ones who lead the Spanish delegation, as heads of state.
The decision to absent has generated some “misunderstanding” in the PSOE, as recognized by several sources consulted, which do not succeed why Sanchez will not attend an act that transcends the religious and is rooted in the purely political, by attending a large representation of leaders around the world. In private, several leaders recognize not understanding the decision, more when it has not transcended any impediment of agenda that justifies it, although these doubts are not made publicly.
In Moncloa they have plunged into the most absolute mutism and do not provide any added explanation to the one they already offered on Tuesday, when they limited themselves to assimilating the funeral of Pope Francis to the takeover of the possession of foreign leaders to whom if the king does not come the president of the Government. “With the kings, the highest representation is already,” they resolve, to justify that it is an act between state leaders. In addition to the monarchs and Montero, the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, and the Minister of Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, Félix Bolaños will also attend.
However, the facts and the precedent of John Paul II denied this argument. Then, in the official Spanish delegation the kings Juan Carlos and Sofía traveled; the then president of the Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero; Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos, and Mariano Rajoy, opposition leader.
It is also discredited by the representation of other countries, where rulers and heads of state coexist in delegations. From Belgium and the Netherlands they have already confirmed that they will send their prime minister to the State Chief. And in the case of the United Kingdom, Carlos III will send his son, Prince Guillermo, on behalf of the crown, but will also be accompanied by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, according to Buckingham Palace sources officially confirmed.
In public, however, no leader wanted to feed criticism. Emiliano García-Page subtracted transcendence to the decision, noting that there was no “political cause” after it. Questioned by the precedent of 2005, the president of Castilla-La Mancha said: “I do not know if one is better than the other, there is no written rule on another particular and each one decides according to the situation.”