The emeritus monarch accompanies the Spanish-Peruvian writer at the ceremony of his admission to the French Academy
Juan Carlos plans to participate in a dinner at the Elysee on Friday with Macron, Vargas Llosa and Javier Cercas
The writer Spanish-Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa has criticized this Thursday in Paris the little recognition that the Spaniards have for the king emeritus Juan Carlos I. “Spain is not doing quite well. There should be greater recognition for the king & rdquor ;, lamented the author of Conversation in the Cathedral in statements to various media, including EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA, after the ceremony of his admission to the French Academy. The freedom we enjoy today depends a lot on him & rdquor ;, she added.
The emeritus has accompanied the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature in this act, which has made him the first author who does not write in French to be part of the famous French institution. Vargas Llosa, who in 2011 was decorated a marquis by the then Spanish king, had expressly invited him.
Juan Carlos, who traveled in a private plane from Abu Dhabi to Paris, attended the ceremony along with the Infanta Cristina. This is one of the few public trips to a European country by the ex-monarch since in the summer of 2020 decided to leave Spainin the midst of criticism by the different affaires that dotted it, all of them archived in 2022 by the Supreme Court prosecutor’s office. In May of last year, he had attended a regatta in Galicia in his only public visit to Spanish territory since he went to live in the United Arab Emirates.
On Friday he will have dinner with Macron
“I’m very well. Delighted to see you,” Juan Carlos, 85, told the press upon his arrival at the monumental building of the Institute of France, which he entered dressed in a navy blue suit and a maroon tie and walking with the help of a cane. During the ceremony, he sat in the front row along with his daughter Cristina de él, an honor that the rest of the guests did not have. “He has been king of Spain. We ain’t gonna treat you like the janitor (…). We owe this to Spain. He is the father of the current king & rdquor ;, said Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, director of the French Academy, in statements to El País.
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Apart from his presence at Vargas Llosa’s admission ceremony, few details are known about the ex-monarch’s stay in the French capital. The Spanish Embassy in Paris indicated that he will not stay in his building. He also insisted that it is a “private visit & rdquor;. In fact, it is not known how long she will stay in France and if he will return directly to the Emirates at the end of his visit.
“As he is in the doldrums, I remember him,” Vargas Llosa said in statements to the newspaper of the Prisa group about his invitation to emeritus. Juan Carlos, according to the same outlet, will have dinner on Friday at the Élysée with French President Emmanuel Macron, Vargas Llosa and Javier Cercas, author of anatomy of an instant. A meeting that has not been confirmed by the French presidency or by other official sources.