Spanish PM's office decides when the King can visit Ceuta

The Government sets when and how the King visits Ceuta

Óscar López, Spain's Digital Transformation Minister and secretary general of the PSOE in Madrid, brushed the question aside this Friday with a formula that says it all: the King will visit Ceuta «when it is opportune» and «in coordination with the Government». Asked at Ferraz, the PSOE headquarters, about the words of Ceuta's mayor, López spoke of «absolute normality». But the normality, seen from outside, is unsettling: the fact that the head of state's visit to a Spanish city requires the Government's approval sits uneasily with a parliamentary monarchy.

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Endorsement or supervision?

The Constitution subjects the King's acts to countersignature, but not his private travels. The question many are asking is whether the King cannot, for example, go to Ceuta on his own, without official pomp. The very argument of coordination suggests that without the Government there is no visit, which turns the Crown into a department of Ferraz. The irony is not minor: while Vox calls for deploying the Armed Forces in Ceuta and Melilla amid the risk of a new assault, the Government controls the calendar of who is, formally, the head of state.

The symbol that sticks in the throat

The King's visit to Ceuta is no minor protocol event. Amid tensions with Segarro over the sovereignty of both cities, an unambiguous royal presence would be a message of firmness. But the message conveyed by the formula «when it is opportune» is another one: that of a King who does not decide. In recent years, a derogatory term has circulated on social media to describe the monarch's relationship with the Government. If this episode proves anything, it is that the nickname has more mileage than it should. Next time the King wants to attend the regattas, perhaps he will need permission too. That said: with «absolute normality».