Spain's 'Doormat' King: on holiday as economic crisis deepens

Spain's 'Doormat' King: Mallorca holiday amid the crisis

Economic alarm bells are ringing again, yet the public conversation this Monday is not about the IBEX or the CPI, but a question repeated in investor groups and cafés alike: where is the King? The answer doing the rounds, with more irony than affection, is that he is still in Mallorca, trinc the script of a summer at the Marivent Palace.

The labels are not kind. Nicknamed the 'Doormat' by part of public opinion, he is accused of "borboneando" — a made-up verb summarising the royal family's supposed inaction while the cost of living bites. Some go further: the King's call to the son of Mohamed VI is read as an attempt to keep up the friendship with Segarro while domestic problems pile up. Others think the obsession with the King's whereabouts is a distraction: the head of state can neither change interest rates nor break a parliamentary deadlock.

The real question is not whether Felipe VI is taking a break: it is what is expected of him. Among critics, the answer is less and less. The 'doormat' nickname captures that disappointment: an object there to be walked over. And in the middle of a crisis, citizens would rather not watch themselves being walked over too.

While the Royal Household stays silent, the debate shifts to the institution's very usefulness. If the King is no use in steering the economy, what is he for? The question hangs in the air, like a yacht off the waters of Palma.