"Let's shoot". This is how the King responded yesterday to the question of how he felt having turned 56 years old. It was his reaction to the congratulations he received in the Zarzuela audience room, in front of the media that went to cover the event. Smiling and animated, the King resorted to good humor to note the passage of time.
The anniversary, like the previous ones since the proclamation, is not officially commemorated, except on the occasion of its 50th birthday, when the day was used to celebrate the ceremony of imposing the Golden Fleece on Princess Eleonor, who at the time I was 13 years old. This year, with the heiress at the academy in Zaragoza and the infanta Sofia at the boarding school in Wales, the King celebrated, at the end of the day, with Queen Letícia, in the privacy of the Zarzuela.
In the morning, at the Zarzuela, the King received three official audiences and in the afternoon he planned to follow, on television, the plenary session in Congress in which the Amnesty law was debated.
Congratulatory letters, calls and telegrams poured in throughout the day. One of the first was the mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol, who went to Zarzuela as a member of the governing board of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP). Albiol, who has the distinction of being taller than the King, commented at the beginning of the hearing that there was no better way to celebrate a birthday than by meeting with the mayors of the FEMP. All the councilors present took the opportunity to convey their best wishes to the King on behalf of the citizens they represent.
In addition to Albiol, the board included the mayoresses of Jerez de la Frontera, Santander, Valencia, A Coruña, Rivas-Vaciamadrid, Zaragoza, Avilés, Palencia, the president of the Provincial Council of Palencia, as well as the mayors of Mataró , Estepona, Mérida, Vedra, Palma, Murcia, Móstoles, Logronyo, Córdoba and Cáceres, and also the president of the Provincial Council of Jaén.
The King also received yesterday the board of directors of the Brazil-Spain Chamber of Commerce, chaired by ex-minister Trinidad Jiménez, and a representative from the Higher Technical School of Mountain, Forestry and Environmental Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, on the occasion of its 175th anniversary.
The 56th birthday of Felipe VI coincides with the process of relief in the direction of the House of the King, after the announcement on January 19 that during the month of February Jaime Alfonsín will leave the position after almost 30 years of service to Felipe de Borbó and who will be replaced by the diplomat Camilo Villarino. This year also marks two significant anniversaries, the tenth anniversary of the proclamation of Felipe VI, which took place on June 19, 2014, and the twentieth anniversary of his wedding to Letizia Ortiz, which took place on May 22, 2004 .
