The King returns to Catalonia next Wednesday to preside over the delivery of offices to the new judges, which will take place at the Fòrum convention center, and subsequently visit, in the company of Queen Letizia, the Puig company on the occasion of the inauguration. of the second building of its headquarters in L'Hospitalet. It will be the first visit of the Head of State in 2024 to Catalonia, although Queen Letizia was already in Lleida on January 23 at the start of the Talent Tour of the Princess of Girona Foundation. The next time the King will be in Barcelona will be for the inauguration of the Mobile Word Congress (MWC) on February 25 and 26.
This Wednesday will be the ninth time, since its proclamation in 2014, that the King presides over the delivery of dispatches in Barcelona. He was not present in 2020, when the discrepancies between the Government and the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) ended up affecting the Crown, since the Executive chaired by Pedro Sánchez, made the decision to avoid the presence of the head of State. in Catalonia due to the imminent disqualification of the then president of the Generalitat, Quim Torra. On this occasion, the delivery of offices to the new judges will be celebrated with the future amnesty law as a backdrop
Until last year, all the ceremonies for the delivery of judicial offices had taken place in the Barcelona Auditorium, except for the one in 2020, which was held at the headquarters of the Judicial School, but this year, as in 2023, the ceremony It will be held at the Forum convention center due to the high number of new judges. The King will preside over the ceremony of handing over offices to the 160 members of the 72nd class of the judicial career, which includes 119 women and 41 men. As reported by the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), the event will be attended by the interim president of the body, Vicente Guilarte, and the director of the Judicial School, Jorge Jiménez. It will be the first time that Guilarte attends this event as head of the CGPJ, since he came to office last July after the forced retirement of Rafael Mozo, who in turn replaced Carlos Lesmes after his resignation in October 2022 due to the blockade in the renewal of the Council.
After attending the judicial ceremony, the King will hold several audiences at the Palauet Albéniz and, in the afternoon, in the company of Queen Letizia, he will visit the headquarters of the Puig company, which inaugurates a second tower in which the laboratory and areas will be installed. of innovation and development. Felipe and Letizia were already present in April 2014, still as Princes of Asturias, at the inauguration of the first tower that coincided with the celebration of the first centenary of the company, which has just turned 110 years old.
Throughout 2023, the King presided over several events in Catalonia, the first a little over a year ago and with the same reason, the delivery of offices to the new judges and the last on October 18 when he traveled to Barcelona to visit the double exhibition Picasso/Miró, at the Museu Picasso and the Fundació Miró. He also attended, as in previous years at the end of February, the inaugural dinner of the Mobile Word Congress; In June he was at the SIL, the logistics hall, organized by the Free Trade Zone Consortium and, in September, he presided, together with the Queen, at the presentation of the Vanguardia Prize at a dinner convened to commemorate the 142nd anniversary of The vanguard.
In July, together with the Queen, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía, the King presided over the presentation of the Princess of Girona awards in Caldes de Malavella (Girona).
During the King's visit to Barcelona, from September 18 to 19, 2023, the normalization of the institutional relations of the City Council and the Crown was staged in the audience that Felipe VI held with Mayor Jaume Collboni, after a stage marked by the decision of the previous mayor, Ada Colau, not to participate in the events in which the head of state was present.
