Queen Letizia has brought Felipe VI closer to the hearts of the thousand Pamplona residents who were waiting for them this afternoon in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento de Pamplona. The queen did not hesitate to use one of the red San Fermin scarves that she had received from four children to tie it around Felipe VI’s neck before the amused look of the acting minister spokesperson Isabel Rodríguez. The gesture of the monarchs has been the icing on the cake of an institutional visit requested by Mayor Cristina Ibarrola, who has handed over the command of the city to the King of Spain.
Neither Felipe VI nor Queen Letizia have given public speeches, but since their arrival near Pamplona Cathedral, both have made clear their desire to please the hundreds of citizens and curious onlookers who were waiting for them. Before entering the interior of the temple, Queen Letizia has convinced the King to delay greeting the Pamplona curia to greet – almost one by one – the citizens who were waiting for them behind a fence. The Queen has once again worn Sfera’s white midi dress with lace on a sunny morning.
Letizia’s leadership at the start of the institutional visit to Navarra has continued throughout the journey made by the royal delegation together with the Archbishop of Navarra, Francisco Pérez. The visit to the mausoleum of Charles III and his wife Leonor de Trastamara has completed the first of the acts of the kings on the 600th anniversary of the Privilege of the Union, the royal order issued in 1423 by Charles III to create the new Pamplona with the integration of the three towns that existed until that date.
The popular pull of Queen Letizia has continued when the monarchs have arrived at Pamplona City Hall. Almost a thousand citizens were waiting for them and the queen was in charge of breaking protocol to place the festive handkerchief to Felipe VI on the lintel leading to the Town Hall. The gesture has resonated with the hundreds of people from Pamplona who applauded the Kings of Spain. Agents of the National Police have removed from the Town Hall Square a woman who was protesting her visit with a whistle while two other neighbors were banging pots.
The Monarchs have given their leadership to Mayor Cristina Ibarrola inside the City Council. The first mayor of Pamplona, also wearing a white dress like Letizia, reminded Felipe VI and Letizia that, as it says at the entrance to the City Hall, Pamplona “is open to everyone” and expressly told them: “Our heart is open to you “. Words with which Ibarrola has distanced himself from the decision of the councilors and parliamentarians of EH Bildu, Podemos and PNV – the partner parties of the PSOE in Congress – not to attend either of the two institutional events with the Kings of Spain. The president of the Parliament of Navarra, Unai Hualde (PNV), did not attend the event, a decision that conflicts with the attitude of the highest institutional representatives of the PNV with Felipe VI when he visits the Basque Country.
The mayor has also appealed to “leadership based on consensus and dialogue to put people at the center”, in a brief speech that the socialist president María Chivite listened to with a serious gesture. “I have the night and the day on your balcony…”, the countertenor of the Navarra Symphony Orchestra began after Ibarrola’s intervention while Felipe VI – without a scarf during the event inside the Town Hall – looked askance at the painter Fermín Urdanoz. The artist began a sketch with the kings of Spain posed during the Ibarrola intervention and it became the center of a lively conversation between the authorities.
Felipe VI and Queen Letizia completed the almost obligatory exit to the small balcony since the chupinazo is launched every July 6 to begin the festivities in honor of San Fermín. The monarchs expressed, both in the Golden Book of the Cathedral and in the Book of the City Council, their “deep joy” for having participated in the historic event that marked the decision of the King of Navarra, Charles III, to facilitate its unification.