King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain announce state visit to the UK
By Ainhoa Barcelona
King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain will carry out a state visit to the UK in June. The palace has confirmed that the royal couple accepted an invitation from the Queen to stay at Buckingham Palace.
The trip has been a long time coming. Felipe, 49, and his wife Letizia, 44, were due to visit the Queen in March last year on their first trip to Britain since they became king and queen in 2014. However, a month before their expected departure, the state visit was postponed due to the political situation in Spain.
The December general election in 2015 resulted in a hung parliament for the first time, meaning that Felipe's attention was turned to meeting with political leaders in a bid to try and form a ruling coalition government. An official statement issued by the Spanish Foreign Office said: "Notice is given that due to the process of the formation of a new government currently underway in Spain, [the state] visit has been postponed."
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Following the announcement, a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace said that the Queen understood why the Spanish royals had chosen to postpone their trip. "The Queen has been informed of the Spanish Government's decision to cancel the forthcoming state visit," the statement said. "The Queen, of course, fully understands the decision and the context in which it was taken."
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The monarchs were due to visit from Mar. 8 to Mar. 10 2016 and were set to stay at Windsor Castle. The castle, which is a 90-minute drive away from London, is often used by Her Majesty as her weekend home. Details of this summer’s itinerary have not yet been revealed, but royal watchers are hoping that Felipe and Letizia will be reunited with the nation's sweethearts Prince William and Kate. The Spanish king and queen attended William and Kate's wedding in 2011 when they were still styled as the Prince and Princess of Asturias.
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The last state visit from Spain was by King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia in 1986. Meanwhile, the Queen and Prince Philip paid a state visit to Spain in 1988.
![At the Forum, Charles delivered <a href=https://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/speech/speech-hrh-prince-wales-world-holocaust-forum-yad-vashem-jerusalem>a moving and powerful speech</a> in which he said humanity "must never cease to be appalled, nor moved by the testimony of those who lived through [the Holocaust]." He also recognized his grandmother's work and Israel's recognition of it in his remarks, and said calling out hatred is always important.
<p>"All too often, language is used which turns disagreement into dehumanization," he said. "Words are used as badges of shame to mark others as enemies, to brand those who are different as somehow deviant. All too often, virtue seems to be sought through verbal violence. All too often, real violence ensues, and acts of unspeakable cruelty are still perpetrated around the world against people for reasons of their religion, their race or their beliefs.
<p>"Knowing, as we do, the darkness to which such behaviour leads, we must be vigilant in discerning these ever-changing threats; we must be fearless in confronting falsehoods and resolute in resisting words and acts of violence. And we must never rest in seeking to create mutual understanding and respect. We must tend the earth of our societies so that the seeds of division cannot take root and grow. And we must never forget that every human being is be-tselem Elokim - 'in the image of God' - and even a single human life is ke-olam malei - 'like an entire universe.'"
<p>Photo; © Abir Sultan/Pool/AFP via Getty Images](/images/stories/0/2020/01/23/000/754/933/thumb_featured_5_3.jpg)
