The first speech by Felipe VI as new King of Spain was expected with great attention, as the Catalan sovereignty process, the discredit of the monarchy, and the demands for a referendum on a republican system were at the backdrop of the abdication of Felipe's father King Juan Carlos I. Has the king's speech responded to such challenges? An item-by-item summary of Felipe VI's speech today before the Spanish Cortes:

The nation

Not to big surprise, the new King talked about the Spanish nation, without any reference to any other nation (not even to the "nationalities and regions" which are mentioned in the Spanish Constitution, relating to Spain's substate units), even though most Catalan and Basque MPs, and some of the Galician, Canary Islands and Aragonese MPs, regard their communities to be nations on their own. Felipe VI said that the Spanish nation has been "forged over centuries of history." This nation, according to the new King, should be a "comprehensive project, felt and share by all, which should look to the future." Spain is "a great nation" that has to "recover [...] its place in the world," Felipe VI argued. And he recalled his father's reign was "the best years of our contemporary history" under "a project of national concord."

Unity and diversity

Spain's unity was one of the recurring references in the King's speech. Felipe VI expressed his "faith in Spain's unity, of which the Crown is the symbol." Spain is a "united and diverse" country because, the new monarch highlighted, "unity [...] is not uniformity" since, according to him, "the 1978 Constitution recognizes our diversity as a defining characteristic of our own identity." Even if no other nation than the Spanish nation exists, the King conceded that there exist "the peoples of Spain," a recognition that was already included in the 1978 Constitution, which is still in force. Under that Constitution, those "peoples" are combined with "the Spanish people," in which "national sovereignty" lies. Beyond having done no mention to plurinationality, Philip VI did not quote any kind of right that those peoples could have either. The new King mostly linked the existence of Spain's peoples to cultural issues and to their mutual "solidarity."

Sovereignty process

There was no direct mention to the Catalan sovereignty process. Felipe VI nevertheless recalled that one of the Crown's role is "to channel cohesion among Spaniards" thanks to the monarchy's "political neutrality" and "integrationist approach regarding different ideological options." The King underlined that he wants a "Spain where bridges of understanding are not broken, which is one of the inspiring principles of our constitutional spirit." The King also called for "loyalty" in order to "enrich [Spain's] collective [personality]," and asked not to use emotions in order to "confront, divide or exclude."

Those who wished to see evidence of Felipe's support to structural changes as regards Catalan sovereignty demands will have quite a hard time to find them. If those changes must arrive through an agreement with Spain's institutions, Felipe VI made it clear that he pursues "a Spain where agreements among [different] political forces can be reached about subjects and at a time when general interest so advises," without further specification. The King insisted that in "a united and diverse" Spain "we all fit," but his emphasis was always limited to cultural, linguistic and traditional aspects.

Languages

It had been argued that the new King could deliver a part of his speech in Spain's languages other than Spanish, in order to highlight linguistic plurality. But even having insisted on the theoretical importance of linguistic diversity, Felipe VI did not led by example and only spoke Spanish in his discourse. Other languages were relegated to his closing words (only two words saying "thank you very much" in Catalan, Basque and Galician). And even then his speech did not include another official language (Occitan) and two other officially recognized languages (Asturian and Aragonese).

Furthermore, Felipe VI recalled that "the other languages ​​of Spain" (he did not even mention them by name, contrary to what he did with Spanish, which he emphasized is "the official language of the state") are a "common heritage" that should be "the object of special respect and protection" (and at this point the King ignored that those "other languages" enjoy official status in six autonomous communities).

The King's name

Another theory that had been circulated among circles awaiting some gesture towards Catalonia was that the new King would not be using the name "Felipe VI." Speculation had that he could use the name "Felipe Juan I," which could have avoided a problem with history: Felipe is the sixth king bearing that name only in Castile, but not in the former countries of the Crown of Aragon (Catalonia, Valencian Country, Aragon, and the Balearic Islands), where he is only the fifth one. The "Felipe Juan I" formula could have also avoided the obvious connection of Felipe VI with his predecessor Philip V, the King who in 1707-1716 abolished the Crown of Aragon's charters and institutions, and displaced the Catalan language from official use. This theory has gone belly-up, since the new King is already using the name of "Felipe VI."