Spain’s King Felipe VI did not spend about 890,000 euros of the money allocated to the royal family last year. The entire family received 8.43 million euros for the expenses, which was 544,000 euros more than the year before, but that does not appear to have been necessary according to figures released by the Spanish royal family.
The Spanish royal family receives an amount that the government determines annually, but is itself responsible for how it is spent. The king has allocated himself a princely income of 253,843 euros. His wife Leticia received 139,605 euros for personal expenses and their mother or mother-in-law Sofia 114,231 euros.
Felipe’s predecessor, Juan Carlos de Borbón, did not receive a cent in 2021. He has fled to Abu Dhabi after a fuss about financial transactions shrouded in mystery. He visited his wife and family in Spain this month for the first time since the summer of 2020.
6 million euros
What he lives on is also shrouded in mystery. His four-day visit to Spain has not been paid for by the Spanish royal house, while the house has the means for it due to Felipe’s frugality. Thanks to the ‘bookkeeper’ Felipe, the Spanish royal family already has almost 6 million unspent euros in bank accounts.
Spanish media estimates that their royal house is the cheapest, about 18 cents per inhabitant per year. The British royal family, for example, receives about 100 million euros from the state treasury. That is about 1.50 euros per inhabitant per year.