The King of Spain, Felipe VI, called this Sunday to avoid “the germ of discord”, at times of high political polarization in the country, in his traditional Christmas message.
“Preventing the germ of discord from ever establishing itself among us is a moral duty that we all have, because we cannot afford it,” said the head of state in his radio and television message.
As an antidote to division, the monarch defended the 1978 Constitution as “the greatest political success in our recent history.”
“Thanks to the Constitution we managed to overcome the division, which has been the cause of many errors in our history, which opened wounds, fractured affections and distanced people,” he continued.
“Overcoming that division, therefore, was our greatest success almost five decades ago,” added the king, in reference to the Magna Carta that strengthened the transition that began after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.
The king’s message comes in the midst of marked political tension, a few weeks after the socialist Pedro Sánchez was re-elected president of the Government in November thanks to the support of the radical left and several regional parties, including the Catalan independentists.
In exchange for the votes of the latter, Sánchez agreed to promote the processing of a controversial amnesty law for its leaders and activists prosecuted for their involvement in the attempted secession of Catalonia in 2017.
This measure generated a deep fracture in the country and massive protests against it, several of them called by the right-wing opposition.
The head of the right-wing opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, of the Popular Party (PP), constantly charges against the amnesty, which he considers unconstitutional and a “humiliation for Spain.”
The extreme right of Vox, the third force in Parliament, went further, with its leader Santiago Abascal calling Sánchez a “dictator” and stating that “there will be a time” when “the people will want to hang him by his feet.”
This is the tenth Christmas message from the king, who ascended to the throne in 2014 after the abdication of his father, Juan Carlos I, besieged by controversies.
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In the message, recorded in the Zarzuela Palace, a photo of Princess Leonor had a prominent place next to the king on the day she swore the constitution before Parliament, October 31, the day from which she can legally succeed as Head of State to Felipe VI.