Controversy in Spain over the “VIP vaccination” of the sisters of King Felipe

“My sister and I came to visit our father and, in order to have a health passport that would allow us to do it regularly, we were offered the possibility of being vaccinated, which we accepted,” they say. the daughters of King Emeritus Juan Carlos I, the Infantas Elena and Cristina, in a press release published on Wednesday when it appeared that the sisters of the current King Felipe VI had brought in memory of Abu Dhabi the dose of immunity against the coronavirus which still did not correspond to them.

“Without this circumstance, we would have accepted the vaccination delay in Spain, whereas it would have corresponded to us”, add Elena and Cristina, who occupy the third and sixth places in the line of succession to the Spaniards. Crown.

With these words -which allude to a health passport not yet valid and under discussion-, the infantas try to justify that they were vaccinated against Covid-19 in February, during a visit to their father, self-exiled in the United Arab Emirates since August of last year due to the scandal that they continue to spark their alleged financial fears, some of which are under investigation.

Infantas allegedly committed a crime: the diplomatic representation of the United Arab Emirates in Spain confirmed to the Spanish press this Wednesday that it is not legal for foreigners to go there to be vaccinated since the vaccine against Sars-Cov-2 is only available to their nationals and residents.

Elena, 57, and Cristina, 55, traveled separately at the beginning of last month and were vaccinated on February 6 and 7.

But they weren’t the only ones immune. Juan Carlos himself would have been vaccinated given his 83 years of age barely 83 and his fragile state of health.

The head of the National Intelligence Center, Félix Sanz Roldán, 76, who was in Abu Dhabi at the beginning of January this year, has also been vaccinated.

The king

From the royal household, they insist that King Felipe “is not responsible for the acts of his sisters”, that the infantas are not part of the royal family and that the monarch, Queen Letizia and her two daughters – the Princess of Asturias Leonor and the Infanta Sofía will be vaccinated “when it suits them”.

Immunization of the homes of the King’s Sisters, like any unofficial move involving the Crown, it also has a political cost for the government of Pedro Sánchez, which continues to sour the spirit of the coalition between the PSOE and United We Can, if it is to question the Spanish monarchy.

“There is a debate about the usefulness of the monarchy which grows every time from the Royal House itself they come up with new scandals which produce a huge outrage in a very important part of the society,” said the second. vice-president and head of Podemos, Pablo Des Eglises.

“The Spanish company does not accept that members of the Royal Household are vaccinated against the coronavirus in Abu Dhabi, ”he added.

According to the Spanish edition of Online Policy, the infantas Elena and Cristina traveled with three escorts each who received 33,000 euros in travel expenses that the Ministry of the Interior would have covered.

In addition to immunity to the coronavirus, the infantas brought back from distant lands of Abu Dhabi a message from the King Emeritus: his willingness to return to Spain this month. Juan Carlos does not want to miss the regattas that started in Baiona, Galicia, last weekend.

But of the Palacio de la Zarzuela they try to convince him that it is not yet time to return to the kingdom because their behavior is only a good part of the contraction of the Spaniards and they continue to be relevant.

Last week it was for the payment of 4.4 million euros that his lawyer made to the Spanish AFIP which are added to 700 thousand euros which he has already paid in December, a gesture which reveals not only the recognition by the emeritus king of his shady maneuvers to pay his taxes, but also the delay of the Justice to investigate him: tax regularizations are possible as long as’ there is no insider the judicial investigation process nor the tax inspection process.

PB