Princess Letizia, Current Events Part 4: July 2005 - May 2006

[CRIS]

Letizia is not perfect. But your plan is to criticize it to her, and that seems to me very bad of your part. If you do not like, you do not come to the forum to criticize. For you to criticize if this good and that we thought about that Letizia is a good princess this badly?

 

[Scherezada]

Letizia is not perfect. But your plan is to criticize it to her, and that seems to me very bad of your part. If you do not like, you do not come to the forum to criticize. For you to criticize if this good and that we thought about that Letizia is a good princess this badly?

Oh really? Is this forum for Letizia's fan only? Oh sorry, I didn't see the warning at the entrance.
And why can't I come to the forum? because you said so?. I live in a democracy and I can say whatever I want, since I'm not breaking any rules you better deal with it.

 

[adelaide]

Ok, sheresada, you don't like Doña Letizia, so what ! Be courageous and said why you don't like Doña L. for objectives reasons, because your explanations are so obscures they are totaly irrelevant, except if it's ridiculous envy. In Spain they said : "sobre gustos, no hay nada escrito.

 

[nayralorenzo]

I don't like her too...but I like other princess like Maxima or Mary. The thing is Letizia is doing NOTHING for Spanish people, she only sits with Felipe and says anything...was she not the most important newspaper of the last 30 years?
When she was presented as the fiance of Felipe I have liked her, so spontaneous...so natural...I thought she was going to make something different...but now....agh, I really don't like her.
I am sorry if my opinion is not yours...but it's an opinion...and everybody has one.

 

[Roxsteve]

Not everyone has to agree with everyone else's opinion. As long as they remain respectful we should hear both sides. We should not get so offended about some comments made. This is a forum to express our ideas not to idolize or praise all CPs. Let's be real, let's be adults and let's have fun with gossip and photos.

 

[adelaide]

Ok,Nayralorenzo, it's your right; but explain a little what Mary is doing more for danish people than attend to Fashion exibitions ?

 

[lula]

You are very confused , to do a useful work does not have anything to see in spite of doing acts in solitary. You can do acts in solitarily and that these are ridiculous, and that only give the orders you to cut tapes. And you can do acts in couple and that these are more useful. Letizia comes to political, economic and cultural acts with the Prince much more important than to that there come other alone or accompanied princesses.

She has been in numerous meetings with businessmen, politicians, writers, journalists ... she has come to all kinds of acts and known to many Chiefs of State.
She has been next to the citizens when she had to be, before any tragedy she has been there.
Though clear it seems that it is less useful that to see defiles fashionable, to baptize roses, or to come to exhibitions...

 

[purple_platinum]

I think there's more of Letizia to come... so, yes, she hasn't had any official engagements on her own until now, but so what?!
she has travelled and perform official duties on so many important issues, in economics, cultural, and so on.
i would prefer her activities so far, compared to let say Mary's.
Mette-Marit, Mathilde, Maxima only perform official overseas visit & involved with issues like microcredit or humanitarian only a few years after their marriage.
so, please don't start bickering on Letizia! it's only her 2nd year after marriage, and so far, i think she has done trumendous job. hopefully, in few months she'll return to her official duties, and perform some on her own.

 

[bigheadshirmp]

I think there's more of Letizia to come... so, yes, she hasn't had any official engagements on her own until now, but so what?!
she has travelled and perform official duties on so many important issues, in economics, cultural, and so on.
i would prefer her activities so far, compared to let say Mary's.
Mette-Marit, Mathilde, Maxima only perform official overseas visit & involved with issues like microcredit or humanitarian only a few years after their marriage.
so, please don't start bickering on Letizia! it's only her 2nd year after marriage, and so far, i think she has done trumendous job. hopefully, in few months she'll return to her official duties, and perform some on her own.

completely agree!!!!!! she had a very busy schedule since day 1 of her marriage!!! we can see her almost every day on this forum...from economic forums....handing out prizes.....trips all around Spain and overseas!! more than any other crown-princess travel in a year! please do not compare her with mathidle, maxima, mette-marit and espeically Mary!!! they are in a different country with different culture!

 

[Tinika]

It may not be Letizia's choice to be so silent, or to attend functions with Felipe only and not alone. The palace may be controlling her actions and image very carefully. There's no way for us to know, really, is there?

 

[carlota]

Oh well, I guess in this forum is happening the same with as with the spanyard press, Letizia is soooooooooooo perfect that have become a kind of alien. St Letizia of Asturias. C'mon, you people may like Letizia but you can't be so blind, Letizia's public appearances are solely as Felipe's wife. I don't know if call me stupid is according to the rules of this forum, well, I may be stupid but I have eyes on my face, ALL the princesses are doing their jobs, have their own agendas, AND have kids in between, their travel without their husbands in ocassions, patronage events, etc etc, in case you don't know the Spanish Monarchie is rich, their are millionaries, all of them, from JC to Cristina, ask any spanyard if they can live in those kind of houses or pisos, with nanas for their kids, luxurious vacations, etc, father JC knows how to distribute the money. Even the greek Queen and King so called because neither of them are Queen or King anymore, the soveraigne people of Greek doesn't recognize monarchies anymore, but the yellow press needs to sale copies and keep calling Queen and Kings to people that are exilees, even they are rich. My point is that if Letizia doesn't have a real job, with an agenda etc is not because of the lack of money, they who have everything they may possible want, with the money they spend only in annual flowers for the Palace you can pay a staff, give me a break!.

Letizia is not perfect. But your plan is to criticize it to her, and that seems to me very bad of your part. If you do not like, you do not come to the forum to criticize. For you to criticize if this good and that we thought about that Letizia is a good princess this badly?

can i add my two cents to all this?
i don't like neither dislike letizia. i just see what she does, complain about the bad things and congratulate the good things. i don't think sherezada was critzising letizia. what she only said was her opinion, nothing more nothing less. the fact that you, cris, like her and may interpret that as a critic is another thing. i like maxima, i like rania... lots of people come and came to rania's forum and said that they don't like her because of x reason, but i didn't say "if you don't like her, don't come in". there's more that likes of dislikes here, and that is to get information about royal figures and people need to accept that maybe someone is interested in royalty and in what they do but may not like a person. forums shouldn't be a place of adoration of a thing, but they are intended as a way of exchanging opinions and views. why, again, not let us a margin to talk with other people and discover that we were wrong in some way, and to let the other find out that he/she was wrong in other thing?

on the other side, i don't think letizia is going with felipe to the engagements because she wants to (she is ambitious and likes trying things and showing she can do things, she is not the type of person who doesn't fell confident about herself and goes with felipe because of being afraid or something). it's the palace who organises the events and not her, and there may be a sensible reason for her to go with felipe.

 

[Scherezada]

You are very confused , to do a useful work does not have anything to see in spite of doing acts in solitary. You can do acts in solitarily and that these are ridiculous, and that only give the orders you to cut tapes. And you can do acts in couple and that these are more useful. Letizia comes to political, economic and cultural acts with the Prince much more important than to that there come other alone or accompanied princesses.

She has been in numerous meetings with businessmen, politicians, writers, journalists ... she has come to all kinds of acts and known to many Chiefs of State.
She has been next to the citizens when she had to be, before any tragedy she has been there.
Though clear it seems that it is less useful that to see defiles fashionable, to baptize roses, or to come to exhibitions...

As Felipe's wife, I don't even remember her tone of voice. She ha become in everything she once hate and everything she never was, from my humble point of view. Maybe the Kings have their reasons for not to let her go by herself since the famous "Let me Finish", I have no idea, I believe that the main problem is that Letizia have not find yet her real niche and she needs to do it because she's just going with the flow and I don't see a confortable Letizia, and that's not only bad for her appearance (she looks 10 y/o since the engagement, maybe the stress) but for her marriage and everything in between. Those events could happen with or without Letizia at Felipe's side, as have being tons of them in the past before Felipe were married and with the same outcome, that's my point.

PS. Since when a person who disagree is consider a troll? I would say is good for the message board, don't you get bored sometimes?. Envy? I won't change my precious anonimous life for Letizias not in my worse nightmares, I'm the same person I have always being, I won't change completely my life and my points of view for a man, no matter how much I love him, a crown and power. I don't like monarchies but for ex. I like Maxima and Mathilde.

 

[eireann]

To add my two cents, I think Letizia is taking her time to get to know the system and how things work (or if she´s not she´s being made to). Probably the best way to do this is being with Felipe...afterwards they can discuss things etc and she´s learning all the time. I think it´s hard to say Letizia doesn´t work - with all the travels she has taken since she started and the comments from the people she´s visited - it´s clear that she has worked very hard to make meaningful relationships with the people she´s met...I´m sure she´s more interested in developing a long term strategy...she´s far too smart and intelligent and with a lot of drive to remain behind Felipe for the rest of her life.

 

[Alexandria]

To add my two cents, I think Letizia is taking her time to get to know the system and how things work (or if she´s not she´s being made to). Probably the best way to do this is being with Felipe...afterwards they can discuss things etc and she´s learning all the time. I think it´s hard to say Letizia doesn´t work - with all the travels she has taken since she started and the comments from the people she´s visited - it´s clear that she has worked very hard to make meaningful relationships with the people she´s met...I´m sure she´s more interested in developing a long term strategy...she´s far too smart and intelligent and with a lot of drive to remain behind Felipe for the rest of her life.

I agree eireann -- a very intelligent and rational viewpoint you've taken here.

The one thing that I immediately thought about when I read your post is "What's the rush for Letizia to carry on her own agenda?" God willing, she will be a Crown Princess for a very long time and will have many, many years ahead to perform royal duties without Felipe at her side, and even more when she is Queen.

We have to keep in mind that each royal house has their own agenda and as many others have pointed out when this discussion has come up in the past, this is the way the Spanish forum handles things. It was this way when Sofia became a member. This is not a new system that the Spanish royal court has implemented for only Letizia because of her "Just let me finish" comment or because she was a driven career woman before marrying Felipe.

I in fact think it's rather sweet that Felipe and Letizia carry on their royal duties together. In the months after their wedding they were still newlyweds so it was nice to see them side by side representing Spain rather than sending Letizia one way and Felipe another way. These last few months it has been nice to see them as her pregnancy developed -- it made me think that if the baby should kick or move while they were somewhere Felipe would be right there to feel the baby.

I think it's silly to argue about what Mary or Maxima or Mathilde did in their first several years as princesses "versus" what Letizia has done. All these women were successful in their own rights before marrying their respective princes and today continue to be successful in their own rights as princesses. Being a princess (or being human for that matter) isn't a matter of judging and weighing who does more and therefore they must be a better person. It's about the quality one brings to their job and how they make others feel. Wouldn't we all want a princess who only made five royal duties a month but made everyone in attendance at each of those events like the most special person in the world rather than a princess who performed 30 royal duties a month but treated everyone like dirt?

 

[lula]

It does not matter for me if you like her or not Letizia, each one has his opinion.

But to speak, often it is necessary to know the circumstances and how every Royal House and every country works.

I do not believe that the Royal House it concerns for them at this point " Leave Me to finish " that was an exagerate bilge, and moment in which the first ill-mannered person was he for interrupting her.
It is true that the acts of the Prince would make to themselves equal without Letizia, but also it is true, that with letizia his acts takes a coverage as a report of the media of very much major, and of it has taken advantage always of the Royal House. We must never forget that the Prince is the future Chief of the State, and the Princess only his colitigant. Each one in his/her place.

Letizia might be present at many acts, might give many interviews and do thousand things ... it will not be because the people or the mass media do not want. But only one would give attention to her, and would remove itself all the importance to the acts to which she comes.
The Royal Spanish House to seek to avoid always the levity and to avoid to be a motive of debate for bilges. Letizia has had a terrible pressure, and if they were giving her more protagonism this tension would increase.

Not what you know about the history of the Spanish Monarchy and about Spain. The Monarchy re-established 30 years ago, after a few decades of history complicated enough in the country. The King always has had a political strong role, more than the Kings than other European monarchies. Also he has a stronger international activity. He is the Chief of the State, and though the power could not practise because this is a democracy, he is an important figure.

The Monarchy in Spain always has to be doing balances, and sometimes it is very difficult. We are a country of 44 million inhabitants (much bigger than Belgium, Holland or Denmark), diverse enough, with ideas of all kinds and with a problem of terrorism. I assure you that we are not a not easy at all country. There are even certain political moments, in which it hopes that a speech of the King or of the Prince goes for a certain way.

The Spanish Royal House does not offer scarcely interviews, and when they do it it is even a public media , because there are so many mass media that cannot choose some and to leave from side to others. The same thing happens with the acts, they have that balance them in order that no zone of the country remains of side.

As for the role of Letizia, the Queen Sofia always has been kept in the second plane. She has her own activities, she presides the Fundation Reina Sofia with charitable, cultural acts ... and she is respected and wanted by the people. But she has never sought to have any more protagonism that the King; of public form always she has been kept in her site. The King is the Chief of the State and she knows that she has to be there and to do the role that corresponds to her.

We leave ourselves to dazzle for the nice princesses, with big jewels, luxurious garments, which do acts of charity ... and one forgets us that a King and a Prince are figures of State, and these Queens or Princesses are his colitigants ... and that over the nice things exists sew more important many. It is what I called " the syndrome Charles of England "; princes darkened by his wives, that while they gain the appreciation of the people themselves, they are not noticed .... and later there happens what happens.

Somehow, I believe that Letizia is being "sacrificed" by the good of the institution with a view to the public. That she does not do acts in solitarily, it does not mean that she does not work, that does not do a speech does not mean that the reports of an act are not studied to the one that comes or those of an international trip (she the same search information). The public acts are only a part of the work, which one sees from out, but inside in the office, many things can be made and help many people.

 

[Genevieve]

It does not matter for me if you like her or not Letizia, each one has his opinion.

I really like everything you have to say lula. I agree with all of it.

I do not believe that the Royal House it concerns for them at this point " Leave Me to finish " that was an exagerate bilge, and moment in which the first ill-mannered person was he for interrupting her.

I think people are too hung up on this moment. It was one moment out of many for Felipe and Letizia. Who of us here can say that we are perfect and have never had a moment in our lives that we regretted. Plus as you say, this moment reflects worst on Felipe than it does on Letizia. We don't judge Felipe on this moment so why have it loom over Letizia's head? And was it truly such a bad thing? Was it the end of the world? No.

Letizia might be present at many acts, might give many interviews and do thousand things ... it will not be because the people or the mass media do not want. But only one would give attention to her, and would remove itself all the importance to the acts to which she comes.

In interviews the press tends to ask trivial questions too, questions that don't really delve into issues that the royals may want to promote. By prohibiting all media interviews and requests the focus is always on the royal acts since the media knows that they won't get comments from a Vogue interview about the princess's life.

The Spanish court is in fact very smart to position this way so that the emphasis and focus is always on what the royal family does. Not what they wear or where they shop. But on their opinons and intellect.

 

[Josefine]

Do you know if Sophia was on royal duty by her self right from the start when they became king and queen. Becouse what i understand they do moust of the events when sofia is there togather
often Letizia has been compared with mary and maxima but these 3 are different courts with different traditions
maybe Letizia should be compared with Sofia and how things were the first year for her
but then again Sofia was never the croen princess and she waas born royal

what i want to say is F and L may plann their royal duties very much like how S and JC did plann their when they were in the begining of the time being King and Queen
and when did Felipe start royal duty by himself was it after graduation from university

 

[Elsa M.]

You're right, Josefine. The then Princess Sofia didn't perform any solo activities during the first years of marriage. Spain was not a monarchy by then, but the royal couple kept developing activities, during Franco's regime.

Anyway, what you said is true; the same procedures that are being taken towards Letizia were the same pattern used with Sofia, who took much time taking her own activities, so she could learn that her presence alone is enough to make a positive stand toward the Spanish monarchy... And time proved it to be the wisest choice.

 

[Josefine]

You're right, Josefine. The then Princess Sofia didn't perform any solo activities during the first years of marriage. Spain was not a monarchy by then, but the royal couple kept developing activities, during Franco's regime.

Anyway, what you said is true; the same procedures that are being taken towards Letizia were the same pattern used with Sofia, who took much time taking her own activities, so she could learn that her presence alone is enough to make a positive stand toward the Spanish monarchy... And time proved it to be the wisest choice.

i think that is often forgotten and L is often compared to Mary or maxima maybe also Mathilde in what she should do as a princess.
in % how many activities does sofia have by her self....

 

[Elsa M.]

in % how many activities does sofia have by her self....

I have no idea about percentages, but I do see that Queen Sofia, even nowadays, has more activities along with King Juan Carlos then at solo.

 

[Josefine]

that was what i gussed and carl Juan does many thing without sofia

The same with Felipe

 

[Josefine]

how many state visits has she taken part of?

 

[Anna_R]

how many state visits has she taken part of?

With Prince Felipe she made Official Visits to Mexico, Hungary, USA and Brazil.

About receptions in Spain, for what I can remember now there was: Peru, Czech Republic, Latvia, Panama and Hungary.

She was also present at the swearing ceremony of the current presidents of: Panama, Dominican Republic and Uruguay.

Please feel free to correct me if I missed any.

 

[Elsa M.]

There's also an official visit to the Vatican (shortly after the honeymoon) and another one to Sweeden

 

[lula]

They are not strictly official visits but also they have travelled to other countries...

Also they were in the funeral for the President of Austria, I remember that to this funeral other Princes Inheritors came but no Princess, only Letizia.
Also they have been in several open of Institutes Cervantes in Sweden, Serbia and Czech Republic.
Also they have travelled to The United States and Japan.

 

[LaChicaMadrilena]

They also visited Jordan in order to attend the wedding of Princess Noor.

 

[lula]

Here the photo of the funeral of the Austrian President, the attention called me in that occasion that Letizia was neither the only Princess who came, not Maxima, nor Mary nor Mette Marit. It is one more sample of the different form in which there work the Royal Houses of every country. For Sweden they were the Kings.

 

[Josefine]

thank you all for your answears

as i understand she has taken part of 5 state visits with gala and all
at these state visits did she go with the other royals at the different events besides the gala

About receptions in Spain, for what I can remember now there was: Peru, Czech Republic, Latvia, Panama and Hungary.

.

i just wanted to say i had some fun and went through the differnt threads and read the posts ans saw the photos of their differnt travels abroud great threads to browse through now and then

 

[Elsa M.]

as i understand she has taken part of 5 state visits with gala and all

Actually, none of these were State Visits, since only the King recieves honours of head of state. They were all official visits.

 

[Josefine]

alright has she taken part in any state visits?

was there not one from Jordan where she stood next to Rania or am i remebering it all wrong