my bolding
So King Felipe and Queen Letizia need "...to have eyes and ears and a powerful supporter, rally point and voice or reason in the Queen (and King) side on that circles". Senior Zuelta's appointment may be interpreted as an attempt to curry favour with more powerful than expected aristocratic circles. Is Spain a caste society? Is King Felipe capable of shielding his spouse from the mysterious aristocratic circles? I thought Queen Letizia won heart and minds of Spaniards with her super high intellect and much-touted resume. All the claims of intrigues around her by Queen Letizia's fans start sounding paranoid
Don't understand your comment, Al-bina. I get your sarcasm and dislike of all things Letizia, but am failing to understand your issue with this appointment, or your claims about paranoia. Then again, I may be working from a different dictionary of "paranoia"
From what I gather, this man has been with Felipe and Letizia for past 7 years, has gained their trust, has been impressed with Letizia's work ethic etc. If I recall correctly, he may have commented in the past that he did regret that press fails to see the work that Letizia did.
Now that is all water under the bridge.
Time to form their own team. As Letizia never had a secretary (unlike infantas and queen Sofia) who could be transitioned over, a new person had to be brought in. Who better than the one with whom they have trust, good working relationship etc.
That he happens to be a three times grandee is icing on the cake. HE may or maynot help with the aristos. But that is besides the point.
IMHO, any power that aristocrats had over Letizia may have been diminshed. They had power to really not accept her as future queen. But she won their grudging respect with her behavior over last 10 years as evidenced by the comments of powerful amongst them an article on JC that appeared in the beginning of the year.
One of them clearly stated that they were not pleased with the marriage but have come to accept it given her behavior over past 10 years.
Now this is not to say that the crowd that Paloma Barrientos hangs around with will be falling all over themselves to sing praises of Letizia. Paloma has been unhappy since day one that Letizia is not a member of the elite club, and will continue to be unhappy.
This is my understanding of the situation, and I honestly don't think it is a paranoid read of the situation.
