The frantic King’s agenda in recent months makes it impossible, at least for the common mortals, to follow the trail of their words. Felipe VI pronounced an average of two courses every week (pulling under the low), but the one two weeks ago before the UN General Assembly at the request of the Government was not any. The moment, both internal and international, caused a series of political valuations of the message that are not very common when the messenger is the head of the State. For the left of the left, he fell very short by not pronouncing the word “genocide”; For the extreme right, he practically acted as a puppet of the Executive.
If someone expected Felipe VI to accuse the prime minister of Israel of a crime for which he has not been convicted in any court, he does not know how Zarzuela works And, above all, what is the function that the Constitution reserves. In any case, for those who try to unite the pieces of what the kitchen of the King’s house is, the liturgy of the writing of the speeches of Felipe VI remains surrounded by a certain epic and some gray areas that we will try to unravel in this report.
Saying and Callar
The answer to the question of who puts the commas to the king is not unique or simple. It is enough to check the reluctance of certain experts in speaking openly on the subject to realize that it is a sensitive and high caliber issue. As explained to La Razón Asunción de la Iglesia, professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Navarra, the Head of State «has a faculty of message for the triple function attributed to the Constitution in art. 56: Symbolize the unity and permanence of the State, to exercise the function of arbitration and moderation in defense of the Constitution and represent Spain in international relations ».
According to the author of “Challenges of the parliamentary monarchy”, “that generic message of message It is a fundamental role of the State Headquarters, perhaps the most important and complex, since it requires the maximum prudence in saying and in silence ».
So far the doctrine. But who writes the texts? Does the government do it? Are they elaborated in Zarzuela and send to Moncloa to receive the Visé? According to familiar sources of the ritual who ask to keep anonymity, the ritual of real words works in a similar way to how it would in other institutions or large companies. It is not the monarch who writes it from A to Z, but all he pronounces is “his”, is nothing alien in the sense that he takes part in a decisive way in the final result.
As said at the beginning, The volume is such that the papers do not come and go to Moncloa daily to be approved. In addition to that there is no requirement, it would be literally impossible. Another thing is that all the “presences” of the king are endorsed by the government, which is the one who ultimately responds to their interventions.
No one opens their mouths
Of course not all speeches have the same weight. In the case of the pronounced before the UN, there is no doubt that it was reviewed by the Executive of Pedro Sánchez, who is the one who directs foreign policy. Others also crucial, such as the one pronounced in the Cortes or the traditional Christmas Eve, have a seal shared for obvious reasons.
This choral wording of which the aforementioned sources speak has authors external to the house according to the issue that will be discussed, in addition to the pair of Zarzuela officials that follows more closely this plot. In this sense, public institutions such as the Institute of Foreign Trade (ICEX) or the Royal Academy of Spanish (RAE) and the Cervantes Institute are essential to prepare the most convenient message in each case.
With all that material a “mother mass” is elaborated with which the bread will then be made. Anonymity is total and, although sometimes ideas resonate in the voice of the king that have been heard in other forums, no one opens their mouths or attributes the “copyright” of Felipe VI.
The nature of the people who will intervene before or after the monarch to avoid redundant concepts is also taken into account. To do this, Zarzuela’s “sherpas” elaborate an intense plan for previous work and the first draft of what the real intervention will be launched.
“Real black pudding”
The journalists who follow the information of the house receive the text of the speech just half an hour before it is pronounced to facilitate their work, although always with the warning that only “the pronounced words” will be worth. This, which seems so obvious, has sometimes given rise to delusional situations in which it has ended up publishing a content that has not existed. It is true that the king is usually faithful to what is written, but it is also that, from time to time, there are some significant “blood sausages or last minute change to the current thread.
The aforementioned constitutionalist of the University of Navarra believes that this method works and no regulation is necessary: «The important thing is coordination, institutional loyalty and respect for the function of political neutrality of the Head of State, without using his authority for messages that are not state. The message function for dividing positions or party interests should not be instrumentalized ».
“The acts of the king are endorsed by the members of the Government, President or Ministers. In the cases provided by the Constitution, the President of the Congress also endorses. The concretion of the endorsement in the cases of documents is a signature that accompanies the acts of the King as head of the State. In other cases (for example in international representation) it is a tacit endorsement through the accompaniment of a government member, “concludes Asunción de the Church.