Tomorrow, for the first time in almost thirty years, he will not walk the way from his home to the Zarzuela; the Official Gazette of the State (BOE) publishes on Monday the appointment of the diplomat Camilo Villarino as head of the House of the King and Jaime Alfonsín, the discreet man, will no longer share his day-to-day life with Felipe VI.
When he arrived at Zarzuela, he was 38 years old and backed by a brilliant career, first as a lawyer for the State and then as a member of the prestigious Uría Meléndez law firm. Felipe de Borbó, who was 27 years old, had finished his academic training and was preparing to exercise his duties as heir to the Crown. Alfonsín was chosen as head of the Secretariat of the Prince of Asturias and began a not always smooth road in which the two have traveled hand in hand.
On Friday, Alfonsín accompanied the now King for the last time in an official event; it was on the 150th anniversary of the General Intervention of the State Administration, which is still emblematic, since if anything it has characterized Alfonsín's work, mainly since after the proclamation of Felipe VI continued by his side as head of the House of the King, it has been his desire that the head of state was, in all areas, an institution that, despite being the first, was not alien to controls and rigor to which every public function must be subjected.
The last years of the reign of John Charles I were not easy, but many of the mistakes that were made served to avoid repeating them with the new king. Alfonsín's most important legacy is that of having shaped the principles for the "monarchy renewed in a new time" that Felipe VI announced on the day of his proclamation, which will be 10 years old on June 19.
An internal code that demands more control of the Zarzuela of the State Administration and, above all, the implementation of ethical principles that regulate the role of members of the royal family and prevent their involvement in tasks unrelated to representation of the Crown Like the commandments, the changes boil down to two: transparency and exemplary.
The symbiosis between the King and Jaime Alfonsín was confirmed in the clear distribution of the functions of each one; in a trust without cracks and in a mutual loyalty that is understood by the long previous trajectory when Prince Philip had to exercise his role, always as a complement to that of his father, even in recent years when the discrepancies stayed at home.
Hundreds of trips, thousands of events and hours shared between Felip de Borbó and Jaime Alfonsín also forged an indestructible emotional bond. Being head of the King's House is not a job, it is an exclusive dedication in which, sometimes, it is necessary to resolve family and even private affairs, so that at the time of his farewell to the day to day, to already ex-head of the House of the King, this personal relationship weighs more on him than the fact of leaving the position, which more than a position has, on occasion, been a burden, due to misunderstandings and loneliness when taking some decisions, always in the name, and for the good, of the King.
Jaime Alfonsín is leaving Zarzuela after putting Princess Elionor's immediate future on track and having managed to consolidate the figure of the King and the role of the Crown, once the situation of self-exile of King Juan Carlos and the problems of institutional and personal deterioration that he took part in. With no pending court accounts, the relationship between the King and his father is now strictly a family matter.
Camilo Villarino takes possession tomorrow of his position as the new head of the House of the King and it will now be his turn to write a new chapter in the internal history of the Spanish monarchy.
