MADRID (dpa) – It’s official: Spain’s Crown Prince Felipe is in love.
“There is a relationship between the prince and Norwegian Miss Eva Sannum,” a spokesman for the Zarzuela royal palace confirmed. “But there are no imminent plans for an announcement of engagement and no preparations whatsoever.”
The romance between the handsome 33-year-old prince and the blonde 26-year-old model is no longer just the stuff of gossip, and it has sparked a nationwide debate.
Conservative monarchists are irked at the possibility that an ordinary girl from a foreign country – not an aristocrat, not university-educated, not Catholic and a model to top it all – could become the queen of Spain.
Others, however, accuse the monarchists of being snobbish xenophobes who are out of touch with modern times.
“How will we be able to trust Felipe as king, if do not even trust his ability to choose a wife?” asked a representative of the governing centre-right Popular Party.
Felipe and Eva are believed to have been dating since 1997, when they met at a private party in Madrid.
The couple has been photographed in places ranging from the Swiss ski resort of Saint Moritz to India, and Felipe appears to have authorized the publication of some of the pictures to test public opinion.
Spain has long been waiting for the son of King Juan Carlos to marry, but the two-metre-tall, blue-eyed prince has not been drawn to anyone in the group of some 60 European princesses and aristocrats whom conservatives regard as eligible.
The discreet prince is believed to have dated different kinds of girls from blue-blooded Isabel Sartorius to American model Gigi Howard.
In Eva, Felipe may have found a breath of fresh air in the midst of stiff royal protocol – but that is precisely the problem.
Eva may be a beauty, used to rubbing shoulders with the jet set and speak six languages – but she is also just the daughter of a middle-class businessman, and pictures of her small flat in Oslo did not reveal the kind of background that royalty-watchers would have liked.
Nobody is complaining openly about Eva’s lack of a pedigree but critics are stressing that she does not have any kind of a preparation for the hard job of queen.
Eva’s case has not been helped by the fact that she has modelled lingerie and was caught topless by photographers on a Spanish beach.
The choice of a girl like Eva as queen could erode the very foundations of the monarchy in Spain, a country with a strong republican tradition, aristocrat and writer Jose Luis Vilallonga warned.
Queen Sofia and King Juan Carlos are also believed to be less than enthusiastic, and Vilallonga was reported to have spoken out with their consent.
The romance between Felipe and Eva has met with a more eager reaction in Norway, where Queen Sonja is also a commoner and Crown Prince Haakon is engaged to a commoner single mother.
Many Norwegians cannot understand why Spaniards are making such a fuss while some Spanish royalty experts have gloomily hinted that monarchies like that of Norway are headed for a collapse.
Other analysts point out that the case is far from clear-cut. Some commoners who married royals, such as Britain’s Sarah Ferguson, did a lot of damage to the monarchic institution.
Yet some commoner queens, such as Norway’s Sonja and Sweden’s Silvia, have done an excellent job. Britain’s late Diana was a daughter of the aristocracy and appeared to be cut out for the role of princess, yet she could not adapt to royal life.
“Royals should marry for love, otherwise they will engage in extramarital affairs and tarnish the monarchy with scandals,” Norwegian royalty expert Carl-Erik Grimstad was quoted as saying.
A poll by the daily El Mundo showed that around 60 per cent of Spaniards would approve of Felipe’s marriage to Eva. “Give the prince time and trust his judgment,” the Zarzuela spokesman advised.
