Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia News - Part 4. December 2004 to February 2005

[Guess Who]

Great pictures.Thought the mix of shoe color(orange)and white suite was really cool, if she bad been carrying an orange bag it wouldve completed the look.

[Cathy Gomez]

This one is my favorite. It looks like he is misbehaving and she is telling him to behave. So adorable.

[Elsa M.]

Originally Posted by Elsa M.

Next Monday, the Princes of Asturias shall innaugurate the Congress for the 5th anniversary of the Forum of Spanish Famous Labels (FMRE) and will preside the prize-giving ceremony of the 1st accreditations for honorary ambassadors of the label "Spain".

Photo, from La Casa del Rey:

[lucys]

From Hola Magazine:

[Ianna]

Some more..

First one..all smiles..

[Elsa M.]

Today, the princes will visit the newspaper office of "El Mundo", in Madrid.

[Alisa]

Can anyone please explain why they are visiting all the newspaper offices. It seems incredibly unusual...

[Ennyllorac]

Originally Posted by Alisa

Can anyone please explain why they are visiting all the newspaper offices. It seems incredibly unusual...

Why unusual? El Mundo is one of the leading newpapers in Spain. The Prince and Princess already visited La Vanguardia in Barcelona.

[Alisa]

Well that is what seems unusual the fact that they are visiting all the major newspapers in Spain and they have been married for less than a year. I am just wondering why newspaper officies and not somethingelse ? It looks unusual and borderline fishy.

[lucys]

Originally Posted by Alisa

Well that is what seems unusual the fact that they are visiting all the major newspapers in Spain and they have been married for less than a year. I am just wondering why newspaper officies and not somethingelse ? It looks unusual and borderline fishy.

Well before he was married Felipe visited the top newspapers El Pais and ABC, as well as some tv studios--this is just a continuation of that process. It's just a part of Felipe's long-term plan to visit as many major industries and major organizations of the country as he can and knowing how they all run (for example, he and they have also visited major industrial plants, they recently they visted a major design center) so that when he's King (and she is Queen) he (they) knows the country inside and out. What's so fishy about that? Seems rather rational to me.

[Alisa]

To me it sounds a bit irrational. There is nothing wrong with visiting one or two newspaper offices to figure out how a major sector is ran, but visiting more than 5 within a year is excessive and unusual.

[Anna_R]

From Elmundo.es - I did my best to accurately translate it, corrections are welcomed.

The Princes of Asturias at EL MUNDO
BY ANA BUENO

MADRID.- The Princes of Asturias have visited today the newspaper EL MUNDO. This visit was an opportunity to the Princess to get reacquainted with the profession to which she devoted a great part of her youth.
Pedro J. Ramírez, director of the paper, Jorge Fernández, assistant director and Gumersindo Lafuente, director of the website, have explained to the couple how the paper works as well as the website and have answered several questions from the Princes regarding the profession and the media.

During the time that they were with the website team, the Prince confessed that he's a regular user of the Internet maily to be informed everytime he's on a trip. The Princess went further and remembered that, during her time as a journalist, she used to visit elmundo.es often to be informed.

The Princess showed interest as well to the union between the professionals from the newspaper and from the Internet and had the opportunity to meet old colleagues like Luis Ángel Sanz, from the M2 section and an old classmate of Letizia's while she was in college and José Luis Martín Vadillo, the current responsible for elmundo.es, that, like her, was a correspondant in Rivas some years ago. Him to EL MUNDO, her to ABC.

The Prince wanted to know the shift system that allows the website to be updated 24 hours a day, showing a special interest to the workers that are responsible for the site during the night.

Along the morning, the Princes visited ELMUNDO, elmundo.es and MundoTelevisión and attended an "Opinion" meeting that is hosted everyday by Pedro J. Ramírez. Finally, they were supposed to watch a video about the 15th anniversary of EL MUNDO and to have lunch with the directors of UNEDISA.

[lucys]

Tomorrow they will accompany the King and Queen to the annual reception for the diplomatic corps, held at the Royal Palace.

On Saturday the Prince and Princess will be in Alicante to see off the Naval ship "Galicia", which is on it's way to Thailand with military/humanitarian aid, including a military hospital, giant water purifyers and helicopters, army engineers and the like.

http://www.europapress.es/europa2003...&tabID=1&ch=66

[lucys]

Getty Images has a bunch of images from today's visit--I don't know how to do thumbnails, so I'll just share links:

Edited by Anna_R: I attached the thumbnails

[Anna_R]

The remaining images from Getty Images, thank you for posting lucys!

[Alexandria]

Originally Posted by Alisa

To me it sounds a bit irrational. There is nothing wrong with visiting one or two newspaper offices to figure out how a major sector is ran, but visiting more than 5 within a year is excessive and unusual.

I'm not quite sure I understand why visiting media sources is "fishy?"

To me, visiting newspaper offices and TV stations is no more different than a visit by Felipe and Letizia to a church, a hospital, banks, musuems, factories (like the cookie factory the King visited recently), theatres, etc. Newspaper offices are businesses in Spain, just like any other business and have Spaniards who are interested in what's going on with Felipe and Letizia like any other working sector of the country.

It would be something else if all of Felipe and Letizia's time was spent visiting only newspaper or media offices. But they seem to divide their time amongst many other organizations and charities with their visits so I don't see the problem. To say that these sorts of visits to newspaper and media offices is "excessive" is like saying visits to Mexico where they have cultural ties is "excessive."

How many newspaper and media sources have they visisted that it comes to 5 in one year? According to my calendar the year has just begun -- have they already visited 5 media outlets since January 1?

[Anna_R]

More pictures, one from Elmundo and the others from Imagine Scandinavia

[Lyle]

Originally Posted by Alisa

To me it sounds a bit irrational. There is nothing wrong with visiting one or two newspaper offices to figure out how a major sector is ran, but visiting more than 5 within a year is excessive and unusual.

I think that the Royal Court of Spain has attempted to make the transition into royal life as easy as possible for Letizia, so it's natural that they would pick some visits and official duties that relate to her interests, which since she is a former journalist herself, are clearly in the media.

Plus if you look at the number of engagements that Felipe and Letizia have attended during the eight months since their wedding, going to 5 newspapers isn't quite as unusual as it may seem.

[lucys]

Originally Posted by Alexandria

...How many newspaper and media sources have they visisted that it comes to 5 in one year? According to my calendar the year has just begun -- have they already visited 5 media outlets since January 1?

Sometimes discussions on boards can get so silly. Nonetheless, I'll just add to the silliness. If memory serves, in 2004 they visited two newspapers. The other two newspapers I had mentioned were visited only by Felipe in either 2003 or 2002. I would be surprised if they did not also eventually visit La Razon and perhaps El Periodico, thus covering both all the top newspapers as well as the oldest. But hey, if Alisa wants to find this odd that's her right.

In anycase, thanks for fixing my links AnnaR.

[Anna_R]

Let me add my two cents as well.

What I think is that Felipe and Letizia are building a strong relationship with the media as they somewhat "need" them. Their choice to visit the bigger and oldest newspapers in Spain is clearly well-thought. Think about it, they visited "La Vanguardia" last year, not visiting other papers could generate some sort of "jealousy" and could be a little harmful to the princes relationship with the press. (I hope I'm making sense...).

It's really great to see Felipe and Letizia getting in touch with the princess's past, as she clearly enjoy these visits a lot and, since it's reported that she was offered a honor president position in an organ related to the press, it's only natural that they are visiting the newspapers.

Lucys, you are welcome!