Kings Felipe and Letizia are still on an official trip to Germany, where they arrived two days ago and where they already had an eventful day yesterday, which we duly reported.

This morning, the king began the day with a working breakfast with a presentation by German and Spanish businessmen, in which, by the way, there were very few women. The monarch then proceeded to meet with businessmen as part of Spanish-German Forum organized Bertelsman Foundation. These Forums were launched ten years ago when the then President of Germany visited Spain in 2002 and promoted this initiative to bring together commercial projects of common interest. Since then, meetings have been held regularly every two to three years and have been interrupted only during the pandemic. Felipe has already attended several of its meetings in the past, but this time he presided over it for the first time as a monarch.

King’s speech with businessmen

The king addressed them with a few short words – again not a trace of a phrase in German. The ideas were good: that we live in times of uncertainty because of the war in Ukraine, the problems caused by inflation, the importance of securing Europe’s energy supply, what contribution Spanish companies can make in terms of sustainability.

It is especially good that you underlined that Spain is doing a lot in the field of digitization and that it, together with Germany, has signed a document proposing the creation of a digital euro. However, the wording was dense, with convoluted phrases that seemed to never end. In addition, greater importance should have been given to the role of innovation. Personally, I could not appreciate the role of Spanish scientists in Germany and the technological contribution that our researchers make to the German country.

Exhibition about avant-garde women

While the king was with the businessmen, Letitia went to the exhibition with the first lady of Germany, Elka Budenbender. He was named write all their names» and a collection was organized Helga Alvear (one of the best gallery owners in Spain, a descendant of a family of German industrialists) in Palace of Popularity from Berlin. The exhibition wanted to pay tribute to the Spanish creative women who have developed a very powerful work within the most avant-garde currents. the twentieth century, especially since the sixties, but have not always been recognized. names like Aurelia Munoz or Dora Garcia they are unfortunately unknown to the general public, but they were established artists.

Letitia She visited the exhibition and listened carefully to the explanations, but did not make a single statement, speech, press comment or message in any video, so the media only covers her dress (fuchsia, from the creator Moses Grandson). However, it must be admitted that these days the queen is betting on very good outfits, but that she is completely lackluster on this trip, completely out of her mind, cornered, not playing a prominent role other than clothing. Zarzuela was completely wrong about Letizia’s plans and role in Germany. I said this about a state trip to Sweden and I repeat: this mania of the royal house about the fact that she does not open her mouth when the two of them go abroad seems to me ridiculous and unjustified.

Opening of the book fair.

In the morning, the king and queen had separate plans to go together to the Berlin town hall, where they were received by the mayor. Franziska Giffey. In the afternoon they traveled to Frankfurt, where they attended the culmination of their visit: the opening of the Book Fair, the most important publishing fair in the world.

The Royal House posted a video on their Twitter account to follow the inauguration in streamingwhich was very good. Thus, we were able to see the king participate in the inauguration and give his speech (where he finally said something in German). Parliament has had some good things and some pretty bad things. It was great to acknowledge that Spain has come a long way since it was first invited to the Book Fair (in the early nineties) and the last paragraph was also very good, with links to Goethe and German Hispanists (Arthur Schopenhauer translated The Oracle’s Manual and the Art of Prudence Gratian).

But there were failures. He did indeed welcome the Spanish writers present in the room, but made no reference, even general ones, to the Spanish writers of recent decades. And that there are quite famous names, starting with those Arturo Perez-Reverte or Xavier Marias. Also, it would be nice to name the young author or author and appreciate the exceptional work and efforts of the Spanish translators (some of them among the best in the world). don’t say that Spain has the most powerful network of independent publishers in Europe and that the vast majority of them were run by youth (and many during the 2008 crisis). But he didn’t say that.

Nor did he wink at German literature. The German President said in his speech that he was looking forward to reading the books he was going to buy at the fair, and that Spanish editions would be among them. The king should have said something like that. And it would be a note if he mentioned a German book that he read and loved. There are very good magic mountain from Thomas Mann, to the plays Bertolt Brecht.