At the end of January it transpired that the emeritus king bought a convertible Rolls Royce in 2008 and that two years later he sold it to businessman Juan Miguel Villar Mir. In those days, as stated on the registration date, EH Bildu deputy Jon Iñarritu presented a series of questions to Congress to find out how many vehicles from the fleet are available of the positions and personnel of the Head of State. He also asked to know the number of drivers.
In the response, which was accessed by El Periódico de España, a newspaper of the same group, Prensa Ibérica, that this newspaper, states that Casa Real has more than 40 vehiclesamong which five armored Mercedes Benz S 600 stand out, and 61 drivers. Outside this fleet, the margin of responsibility and action of the State Mobile Park ends, and this is reflected in the reply sent to the parliamentarian of EH Bildu: he does not know “if the Royal House (Headquarters of State) has other different vehicles”.
From sedans to hybrids
State Mobile Park is an agency attached to the Ministry of Finance. Endowed with a budget of 45.3 million euros, stable for three years, its mission is to provide vehicles and drivers to the Head of State, the Government and constitutional bodies, including the Constitutional Court, the judiciary and the Cortes Generales. In addition to the means of transport that it grants to ministries and other bodies, it has a fleet of cars whose use is assigned based on variable circumstances. For example, when an official delegation from a foreign State travels to Spain, Parque Móvil lends a series of vehicles for the movement of the authority or authorities and their advisers and other personnel.
The fleet of the State Mobile Park as of December 31, 2020 can be seen on the Internet, and the link, in fact, is attached by the Government in the response it has given to Iñárritu. This is the last report made by an organization that, as its director general acknowledges in the prologue, currently has as its fundamental objective renovation of cars. Hybrids are gradually gaining ground. This report was approved by the governing council in May of last year. Therefore, the balance of 2021 is missing.
The list of vehicles assigned to the Head of State shows a wide range of models, from the most sophisticated and elegant Mercedes sedans to the new Toyota Prius, through vans, people carriers and even a minibus. The oldest of all of them is a Mercedes S 500 model registered in 1999 and with a purchase value of 350,630 euros, according to memory data. The newest are two Mercedes Vito, purchased in 2020 for 33,124 euros each.
There are several sedans, also armored for security reasons, which suggests that they are the cars used to transport the king and his family. They are all of the Mercedes S 600 model. The oldest was bought in 2003 for 390,226 euros and the most recent, in 2019 for about 550,000.
As the most striking vehicles, to get out of the trend of those assigned to the Head of State, there is an Iveco CC150 bus with 35 seats, registered in 2002; It cost just over 128,000 euros. also appears a 19-seater Mercedes 416 minibus, 2005 model; a Nissan Pathfinder SUV and a Citroën C8 minivan.
The necessary commitment to non-polluting vehicles, in what affects the fleet assigned to Casa Real, began to be noticed in 2018 with the purchase of a Renault Zoe for more than 22,000 euros. The acceleration came a year later with the acquisition of 15 Toyota Prius models, each for almost 28,000 euros. In fact, in general terms, and not only in the Head of State, the acquisition of cars with hybrid and electric technology has become widespread in the Mobile Park.
The drivers
Inarritu recorded several questions. “How many vehicles and what type and brand of the State Mobile Park have been made available to Casa Real?” This is the first, which is followed by questions about the date of purchase, the price and the vehicles that have been written off.
One of the questions tries to keep track of the famous rolls royce. Although Iñárritu does not mention the specific car that jumped to public opinion as a result of an exclusive in El Confidencial, it seems clear where he wants to go. “How many vehicles and of what type that have not been acquired by the Government and that are in the hands of the Royal House have they had or have they been maintained during the last ten years?”
Lastly, the deputy for EH Bildu, one of the most active members of his group and a good connoisseur of parliamentary operations, since he has also been a senator, wants to know how many drivers Casa Real has been assigned, as well as the evolution of the number over time. of the decade. The allocation of drivers It is also the power of the State Mobile Park.
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The Government answers practically everything, which collects data from the entity that manages the treasury cars. Although he acknowledges that he does not know if there are other cars in Casa Real other than those that he assigns and maintains, he stresses that he only manages the cost derived from their conservation. Add that during the last ten years 21 vehicles have been renewed of the quota of the Head of State. Those replaced have either “been assigned to other services” or have been “decommissioned for auction or scrapping”.
As for drivers, he points out that there are currently 61. It is the same number as in 2021, when it rose a little. The evolution is the following. In 2013: 58; in 2014: 60; in 2015: 59; in 2016: 59; in 2017: 60; in 2018: 58; in 2019: 60; in 2020: 59; in 2021: 61; and in 2022: 61. Very slight variations, as can be seen.