Macron arrives in Spain to strengthen the alliance with Sánchez in the first French State visit since 2009

The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, accompanied by the first lady, Brigitte Macron, has been received with all honors by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia at the Royal Palace, at the start of what is the first State visit by a French leader to Spain since 2009.

The arrival, scheduled for 1:15 PM, finally occurred at 2:00 PM, after the delay of the flight that was transporting the French delegation to Madrid. After greeting the high officials of the Royal Household, the four headed to the honor stand, where they listened to the anthems of France and Spain, accompanied by a 21-gun salute. Next, Felipe VI and Emmanuel Macron received updates from the head of the force that rendered honors in the Plaza de la Armería, before greeting the Chief of Staff of Defense, Admiral General Teodoro López Calderón, and reviewing the honor battalion of the Royal Guard.

During that protocolary act, Queen Letizia and Brigitte Macron followed the ceremony from the honor stand while conversing animatedly. Afterwards, the respective delegations accompanying both heads of State were greeted.

Sánchez and Macron display harmony during the State visit

The French president had an affectionate meeting with Pedro Sánchez upon his arrival in Spain, with a greeting between the two that evidenced the good harmony between the two leaders. The French president and the head of the Spanish government thus face a State visit focused on strengthening the bilateral relationship and advancing on matters of common interest.

To complete the reception, the King and Macron returned to the honor stand, where they witnessed the parade of the Company of Honors, which closed the event. The Kings bid farewell to the Macron couple, who got into the same car that brought them and that will now take them to the Palace of Zarzuela.

The Treaty of Friendship, in the Senate

Around that same time and very close to the Royal Palace, in the Senate, the debate on the Treaty of Friendship with France for its ratification is scheduled to take place, after last week the Constitutional Court endorsed that the text is in accordance with the Constitution. The unknown remains the direction of the vote of Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party, who voted against it in Congress.

The Upper House, thanks to the absolute majority of the PP, had asked the Constitutional Court to clarify whether the article that provides for the participation of a French minister in the Council of Ministers with a certain periodicity was in accordance with the Magna Carta, despite the fact that the two governments had reached an interpretative agreement to establish that participation would be in ad hoc and not properly deliberative meetings.

Precisely, the delay in the ratification by Spain of the Treaty of Friendship, signed by Pedro Sánchez and Emmanuel Macron in January 2023, during the bilateral summit held in Barcelona, has been one of the reasons why the French president's state visit had not materialized earlier. From the Élysée, they conveyed last week, before the trip, their desire for the ratification of the Treaty of Friendship to be completed as soon as possible, "to reflect the level of proximity with Spain", and underlined Macron's willingness to sign agreements of this type with those countries with which France maintains a closer relationship, such as Germany and Italy, with which there are already treaties, or Poland, which is being finalized.