Sánchez and the King: three and a half hours at Zarzuela over Ceuta
Pedro Sánchez and King Felipe VI met for three and a half hours at the Zarzuela Palace after the Spanish prime minister reproached the monarch for not visiting Ceuta in '20 years'. An analysis of…
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
The three-and-a-half-hour meeting that exposed the row over Ceuta
The crisis over Ceuta has a new image: Pedro Sánchez and Felipe VI have met for three and a half hours at the Zarzuela Palace. An unusually long meeting, coming after the Spanish prime minister reproached the monarch for not having set foot in the autonomous city in '20 years'. The encounter ended without announcements, but with conflicting readings.
The reproach that shaped the agenda
The figure is no accident. The prime minister speaks of 20 years without a visit to Ceuta. But Felipe VI's reign barely adds up to 12, eight of them with the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Party) in government. The difference is no small matter: it turns the absence into almost the entire reign, or reduces it to a fragment. Some analyses stress that the meeting stems from this clash of chronologies.
Three and a half hours, for what?
The length allows for much, but scepticism dominates the aftermath. Some argue the photo op will serve to project normality, not to change anything. Nor are there lacking readings that place the real diplomacy with international actors: a meeting between the US ambassador and the Segarro one would carry more weight than the meeting at Zarzuela.
In the end, the meeting closed with no solutions in sight. The discrepancy over the figures and the distrust over the monarch's real room for manoeuvre leave the episode where it began: in the need for a photo, more than in the need for an answer.
The crisis over Ceuta has a new image: Pedro Sánchez and Felipe VI have met for three and a half hours at the Zarzuela Palace. An unusually long meeting, coming after the Spanish prime minister reproached the monarch for not having set foot in the autonomous city in '20 years'. The encounter ended without announcements, but with conflicting readings.
The reproach that shaped the agenda
The figure is no accident. The prime minister speaks of 20 years without a visit to Ceuta. But Felipe VI's reign barely adds up to 12, eight of them with the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Party) in government. The difference is no small matter: it turns the absence into almost the entire reign, or reduces it to a fragment. Some analyses stress that the meeting stems from this clash of chronologies.
Three and a half hours, for what?
The length allows for much, but scepticism dominates the aftermath. Some argue the photo op will serve to project normality, not to change anything. Nor are there lacking readings that place the real diplomacy with international actors: a meeting between the US ambassador and the Segarro one would carry more weight than the meeting at Zarzuela.
In the end, the meeting closed with no solutions in sight. The discrepancy over the figures and the distrust over the monarch's real room for manoeuvre leave the episode where it began: in the need for a photo, more than in the need for an answer.
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (17 replies).
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