The agenda of the royal family for next Monday does not register official activity, however, that day in the Zarzuela there will be an act of deep emotional significance. For the first time since his departure from Spain more than twenty months ago, King Juan Carlos will meet his son, Felipe VI. The Casa del Rey considers that the reunion between father and son, as well as with the rest of the relatives, is a private and family matter and, in principle, no images or information will be provided.
In the official note that the Casa del Rey makes public every Friday, advancing the acts of next week, Monday appears empty. Neither the King, nor the Queen, nor Queen Sofía have been awarded any official activity, but no information is provided on King Juan Carlos's visit to the Zarzuela. In principle, the King's father plans to leave Sanxenxo in the direction of Madrid, flying from Vigo, on Monday first thing in the morning, so he could be in Zarzuela between 12 and 3 in the afternoon, before flying , again, in the direction of Abu Dhabi. His purpose is to return to Spain, and also to Sanxenxo, to stay for almost two weeks between June 8 and 20 for the celebration of the 6mR Sailing World Championship regattas.
The opacity of that first meeting of father and son, after almost two years of disagreements, collides with the visibility with which the first hours of Juan Carlos I's stay in Sanxenxo have passed. King Juan Carlos, who abdicated on June 17, 2014, who five years later withdrew from all institutional activity and who finally left Spain on August 3, 2020, has achieved with the trip that began on Thursday, break with a dynamic that, if it lasted longer, would have made his return virtually impossible even temporarily.
In the microclimate of the Galician town's marina, Juan Carlos I was received with affection and even enthusiasm, although he, according to close sources, appreciated the former more than the latter. About a thousand people, band and band from the yacht club headquarters, gathered yesterday morning to receive him, in addition to the presence, as witnesses, of almost three hundred media representatives. The meeting of cameras and reporters was so remarkable that the Infanta Elena, who received her father at the Vigo airport on Thursday and accompanied him to the Náutico yesterday, could not help but exclaim: “There are more journalists than on my wedding day.”
At different times, after his arrival in the morning, and also in the afternoon on his return from the sea, where he was following the regatta from an inflatable boat, King Juan Carlos raised his hand to his heart as a sign of gratitude for the warm welcome dispensed by neighbors. With obvious mobility problems but in good spirits, Juan Carlos I took photos with the crew of the Bribón, a six-meter-long sailboat that has inherited the name of the boat with which it competed for years in the Copa del Rey de Palma and other tests. King Juan Carlos promised his fellow sailors to compete on the next occasion.
Before returning again to Pedro Campos' house, where a dinner was held last night in which several friends who had been displaced to Sanxenxo specifically participated, King Juan Carlos outlined several short phrases, "very happy", "very well", when, in a voice in shout, the reporters tried to catch his first words in Spanish territory since his arrival on Thursday. Beyond the words, his gestures and his countenance left no room for doubt: more than happy, Juan Carlos I was moved.
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