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Spain’s king slammed over plans to attend Qatar World Cup

The junior partner in Spain's leftist coalition government on Monday criticised King Felipe VI's plans to visit Qatar later this week to attend the Spanish team's opening World Cup match.

Published: 22 November 2022 09:13 CET

SPAIN-KING-QATAR

Spain's King Felipe and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani attend the state funeral of late Tunisian president Essebsi in 2019. (Photo by FETHI BELAID / POOL / AFP)

Host of global football’s premier event, wealthy Qatar has come under heavy criticism over its treatment of foreign workers and its rights restrictions on women and the LGBTQ community.

The presence of top government representatives at the tournament which kicked off on Sunday has been the subject of fierce debate in several European nations.

Gerardo Pisarello, a lawmaker with the hard-left Podemos party, told a news conference that it was “unfortunate” to hear the Royal Palace announce the king would travel to Qatar without “making any critical objections about what is happening there”.

“We have certainly never had a football World Cup raising so many questions about human rights abuses since the 1978 World Cup in Argentina,” which was organized under a military dictatorship, he added.

Podemos is the junior partner in Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s coalition cabinet, which has governed Spain since January 2020.

It has long been critical of the monarchy, which it would like to see abolished.

Spain’s Royal Palace announced last week that the king would attend Spain’s opening match against Costa Rica on Wednesday.

Denmark has been one of the most vocal opponents of Qatar’s hosting of the tournament due to its human rights record.

Over the weekend, the Danish government announced that no ministers nor the Danish ambassador would attend the opening ceremony or any matches.

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IN IMAGES: King Felipe VI marks 10 tough years on Spain's throne

“During these years of service, commitment and duty have been the pillars of my action as king,” he said during a ceremony at Madrid’s Royal Palace.

Felipe, then 46, was sworn in at Spain’s lower house of parliament on June 19th, 2014, just 17 days after his father announced he would step down following scandals regarding his finances and love life that led many Spaniards to question the role of the monarchy.

The aerobatic team “Patrulla Aguila” (Eagle Patrol) of the Spanish Air and Space Force flies above the Royal Palace. (Photo by Juan Medina / POOL / AFP)

“The king our era needed,” El Mundo newspaper headlined on its front page on Wednesday, adding that the first ten years of his reign had “restored prestige to the Crown”.

READ ALSO: Could Spain ever dethrone King Felipe and become a republic?

In his first speech after becoming king, Felipe promised “a renewed monarchy for a new era”. He promptly ordered an audit of the royal household accounts and issued a “code of conduct” for its members.

King Felipe, Queen Letizia and their daughters on the balcony of the Palacio de Oriente or Royal Palace. (Photo by Juan Medina / POOL / AFP)

The following year he stripped his elder sister, Princess Cristina, of her title as Duchess of Palma de Mallorca after she was indicted as part of a probe money laundering and fraud probe into her husband, Iñaki Urdangarín.

In 2016, she became the first member of the Spanish royal family to stand trial since the monarch was restored in 1975.

The princess was ordered to pay a fine and Urdangarín was convicted and served a jail term of five years and ten months. The couple have since separated.

Spain’s royal family and several politicians pose for photographs with 17 people decorated for civil merit during the commemorations. (Photo by Juan Medina / POOL / AFP)

The best system?

In 2020, Felipe renounced any future personal inheritance he might receive from his father and stripped him of his annual allowance after fresh details of his allegedly shady dealings emerged.

Even though investigations of Juan Carlos’s finances in Spain and Switzerland have since been dropped, Felipe has continued to keep his distance from his father, who left Spain for Abu Dhabi in 2020.

Juan Carlos came to the throne in 1975 after the death of long-time dictator Francisco Franco. He earned respect for his role in guiding Spain’s transition to democracy.

The wife of Spain’s Prime Minister, Begoña Gómez, attended the commemorations despite the corruption scandals she is currently embroiled in. (Photo by Juan Medina / POOL / AFP)

But the money and sex scandals eroded his standing. Spaniards appear divided over Felipe’s efforts to restore the image of the monarchy.

While 47.4 percent of Spaniards feel he has kept his promise of creating a monarchy “renovated for a new era”, 45.1 percent disagreed, according to a poll published Sunday in El Mundo.

Some 49.6 percent believe a constitutional monarchy is “the best system” for Spain, while 40.4 percent disagreed, according to the poll.

Spanish King Felipe VI talks with Spanish Crown Princess of Asturias Leonor. (Photo by Juan Medina / POOL / AFP)

‘Serving everyone’

Since Felipe’s eldest daughter Leonor turned 18 on October 31st last year, the heir to the Spanish throne has had an increasingly public role.

She swore loyalty to the Spanish constitution that day in a ceremony in parliament, a necessary step for her to be able to succeed to the crown.

READ MORE: Leonor turns 18 – What you need to know about Spain’s crown princess

Felipe, wearing a navy suit and patterned tie, appeared on the balcony of the Royal Palace on Wednesday with his wife Letizia, a former TV journalist, and their daughters, Leonor and Sofia, as part of a ceremony marking his accession to the throne. The royal family waved to crowds gathered below.

During a gala lunch at the palace, Princess Leonor and her sister led guests in a toast to their parents.

“Because since we were born, we have been taught the value of this institution, of the Crown, its usefulness to our society and its purpose of serving everyone,” Leonor said

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