Spain’s Catalans rattled & banged pots in protest during King Felipe VI’s speech

While King Felipe VI addressed the public in a televised appearance yesterday evening, the loud rattling and banging of pots and pans from protesting Catalans could be heard across Catalonia.

In his 7-minute speech to the public, the King urged ‘solidarity’ and ‘unity’ describing Spain as a nation capable of ‘confronting – and overcoming – any adversity’. “Through everyone’s collaboration, the country will win the war against the virus, and Spain will come out as a stronger and more united nation,” he stated. Although he acknowledged that the virus is putting the country’s economy and its people’s wellbeing at risk, he also believed that Spain can combat, and ultimately defeat it.

However, his speech did not go down too well with the Catalans. The Spanish monarchy is not very popular in the region anyway, but the latest royal scandal involving the monarch’s father having an offshore account with 100 million euros – reported to be a ‘gift’ from the King of Saudi Arabia – didn’t help matters.

Although King Felipe VI publicly renounced his personal inheritance from his father Juan Carlos recently, and stripped the former king of his annual stipend, the Catalans remain unimpressed. They revealed their disapproval of the monarchy by banging and rattling their pots in protest throughout his speech calling for ‘unity’.

It seems there’s no love lost between the Catalans and the Head of State, with the region continuing to have very little confidence in the monarchy.