Doña Sofía, the hurt and greatly harmed by the departure of Don Juan Carlos from Spain
As if she were one of the six characters in search of a Pirandello author, Queen Sofía is in search of her new place. She is the great victim of all the perfect storm in Zarzuela caused by the endless scandal of the opaque accounts of Juan Carlos I, which has caused her to leave Spain. Because the fact of being her consort leaves her in a very delicate position in the face of the uncertain role that she is going to play in the future within the monarchical institution.
For now, although it has taken many more days than other years, something that is understood by the delicate situation that the entire country is going through due to the coronavirus, Doña Sofía moved to Palma de Mallorca earlier this week to enjoy the summer period, in an attempt to offer a certain image of normality. This Monday, however, when her husband's departure from the country was announced, she was in Zarzuela, where she will continue to reside. Until now, the Queen Mother is in the Marivent enclosure together with her eldest daughter, the Infanta Elena, and her sister, Princess Irene of Greece. The three were seen on a terrace, which served as confirmation of an open secret: Doña Sofía's intention to maintain her tradition every summer, putting on a brave face in bad weather, something she does enviably as that "great professional " What is it. This is how Don Juan Carlos described her in his conversations with José Luis de Vilallonga, although it is known that the name did not make the affected person very happy.
LOC has tried unsuccessfully to inform the Casa del Rey of when the three illustrious tourists arrived in the Balearic capital. But what is most surprising is that the institution considers that of Doña Sofía as a "private displacement". It is these types of circumstances that confirm how much Zarzuela still has to make progress in terms of transparency and improvement of the communication strategy now that it is immersed in a profound catharsis.
To begin with, Doña Sofía is one of the six members that are still part of the Royal Family. And far from being a private trip with a more or less secret destination inside or outside our country -like the one that will apparently soon be going to Greece to meet with her brother-, the Queen Mother has moved to what is the official summer residence of the Royal Family. Hence, it is reasonable that the Casa del Rey reported the trip with absolute normality. But it is also that, in such a complicated moment for national tourism, the institution itself should have been the most interested in publicizing the arrival of Doña Sofía in Palma as part of the Crown's commitment to promoting the islands and attracting of tourism.
For this reason, in addition to enjoying a few weeks of rest, it seems advisable that Doña Sofía carry out an institutional act while awaiting the arrival in Palma de los Reyes and her daughters, which will take place on the weekend of the 7th and 8th of August. The following days will maintain direct contact with the economic and social sectors most affected by the pandemic on the island. Pedro Sánchez will also dispatch with the Monarch in Marivent. Don Felipe and Doña Letizia will not make any secret escape abroad as they used to do every August.
Since the scandal of Don Juan Carlos' offshore accounts broke out on the first day of the state of alarm, Zarzuela has also cornered Doña Sofía, with the aim of enhancing the image of a Royal Family reduced to the Monarchs and their two daughters, Leonor, Princess of Asturias, and the Infanta Sofía.
Hence, since the beginning of March, we have only seen two images of the Queen Mother until this week. The two -both the one published on June 5 and the most recent on July 16, the day on which the State tribute for the victims of the coronavirus took place- are from meetings in Zarzuela of the Board of Trustees of the Reina Sofía Foundation, one of the few organizations from which the Queen Mother has not disassociated herself since the abdication of her husband, in June 2014. Two activities, however, that the official digital accounts of the King's House did not report, making it even more evident that they were outside the institutional agenda of the Crown, in which Doña Sofía suddenly seems to have no place.
No one escapes the fact that the mother of Felipe VI is, despite herself, also the protagonist of the global plan that the Casa del Rey is drawing up to completely distance itself from Juan Carlos I and that, among other measures, includes the announcement of her departure from Spain, which took place this Monday, August 3.
Well-informed journalists about the monarchy such as José Antonio Zarzalejos have expressed that the departure of the Emeritus of Zarzuela would also mean that of Doña Sofía. Some sources, however, indicate to LOC that this will not be the case, and that Don Felipe's mother and her sister, Princess Irene, will continue to reside in the private apartments of the mansion they have occupied for more than half a century.
In any case, it is true that one of the aspects that have been valued when addressing the abandonment of his home by the former head of state is that it will mean the separation with a strong symbolic charge of Don Juan Carlos and Doña Sofía. An especially sad paradox. Because today it is already known that on at least two occasions, being King, he tried to get a divorce, something that was prevented by both his court advisers, as well as the presidents of the Government in power and his own son, Don Felipe, due to the reputational damage that a step thus it was going to cause the Crown. And, although it is no longer a secret for all Spaniards that marriage has been broken for decades, it has been wanted until now against all odds to maintain a certain visibility of the family unit precisely to preserve the family nature of the monarchical institution. The departure of Juan Carlos I from Zarzuela to spend his last years of life in another place while his wife continues to reside in Zarzuela would put an end to that last dynastic fiction.
For Doña Sofía it is very painful that she blurs the historical legacy of her husband. And, furthermore, as LOC has learned from sources very close to Zarzuela, the relationship between the two is now quite good, very cordial. She has not suffered from all the cataract of facts and revelations published by the press in recent months.
And it is necessary to emphasize that Queen Sofía has not been taken by surprise by this information. Don Felipe - and presumably, with him, the entire Royal Family - learned of the existence of the opaque accounts with funds from the King of Saudi Arabia and other satraps of the Gulf in March of last year. Immediately, the Monarch informed the corresponding authorities, starting with the Government. But in the following months, before the scandal reached the public, Doña Sofía demonstrated in a good number of public acts that she had reconciled with her husband -on a strictly personal level- and that she was with him "better than never", as confirmed by a close friend of LOC. The Emeritus were seen smiling and animated in several events that made clear that recovered harmony, after so many bitter years in which it was difficult for them to even speak to each other.
Doña Sofía maintains cordiality with her husband today, waiting for her vital destiny to be known, already outside of Spain, and while some author in Zarzuela writes what story will star the one that continues to be a Queen so loved by the Spanish in the future of the Crown.
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