It is said that Queen Sofia of Spain will snub the British Royal Family by not attending a trip planned to celebrate the Queen’s upcoming Jubilee celebrations. The snub is said to be in protest at a visit by prince Edward to Gibraltar.
A statement from the Royal palace read: “The government has considered that, under the current circumstances, in would be inappropriate for Queen Sofia to attend Queen Elizabeth’s jubilee”.
Relations over Gibraltar have gone downhill especially after Rajoy’s people party took over from Zapatero last December.
Giles Paxman, who is the British ambassador, was at the Spanish foreign ministry last week to hear about the people party’s views on Prince Edward’s future visit to Gibraltar. Apparently Rajoy’s conservative party was “upset and disgusted” at such a visit.
A foreign Ministry statement read like this regarding the meeting:
“During the course of the conversation, and amongst other topics, officials were able to express the disgust and upset of the government for the visit of the royal highnesses the Count and Countess of Wessex to Gibraltar from June 11th to june 13th”.
The cancellation of the visit is seen as a snub and comes at a time when the Spanish royal family has been under the magnifying glass just lately. The Spanish king, Juan Carlos, was forced to grovel and apologize for his faux pas in Botswana where he went elephant hunting while his subjects, the Spanish people are suffering austerity cuts, high unemployment and recession. However, any visit to the Rock by a royal family member usually stirs passion and outrage in Spain especially from the conservative party and the prince’s planned visit is no exception.
The Rock of Gibraltar has been British for the past 300 years but Spain still claim sovereignty over it.
Spain’s Royal couple are reported to be effectively separated, with reports of Queen Sofia spending much of her time abroad with her daughters, Cristina and Elena.
There are also rumours that King Juan Carlos has a German lover, which have been vehemently denied by the woman who has threatened to sue any British newspapers that try to publish her name.