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Following the deadly attacks that were carried out on the 17th and 18th of August in Catalonia, the Spanish government has significantly collaborated with Morocco. Spain and the Kingdom are in good terms diplomatically speaking, a situation that was maintained through the cancellation of Queen Sofia’s visit to Ceuta. The wife of Juan Carlos I was supposed to chair a military ceremony dedicated for the 2nd Legion Tercio «Duke of Alba», an infantry regiment of the Spanish legion headquartered in Ceuta.
The Minister of Defense, Maria Dolores de Cospedal, was set to accompany Spain’s queen. The visit was first announced by Spanish media earlier on August, recalling that the mother of Felipe VI has been to Ceuta on 1970.
After the attacks, Madrid is changing the Queen’s schedule
Right after the Catalonia terrorist attacks, Rajoy’s administration, fearing the eruption of a diplomatic crisis with Morocco, was forced to annul the queen’s visit previously announced by media. The ceremony scheduled for the 9th of September in Ceuta was simply postponed to the 8th of October.
That was not everything. For the time being, members of the royal family are not attending the ceremony, and the same thing applies for representatives of the current government. Only the president of Ceuta, Juan Vivas, will take part of the event. He will be accompanied by a senior Army officer, reports a local online newspaper. Again, the name and status of the official have not been revealed yet.
Queen Sofia is accustomed to attending military ceremonies. In September 2013, she was present at the port of Cadiz, a city Southwestern Spain, to hand over the battle flag to a naval ship. Three years earlier, she presided in Barcelona a similar celebration to honor the Guardia Civil.
In Spain, the official agendas of kings and queens are controlled by the administration, especially when it comes to political matters. For the record, the former head of the government, José Maria Aznar prevented Juan Carlos from visiting Cuba and in 1999 he shortened his stay in La Havana during the Ibero-American summit. Juan Carlos went on his second visit to Morocco in 2005 after Aznar’s party was defeated in 2004.
