President Gustavo Petro’s Controversial Attire at Spain’s Royal Welcome

President Gustavo Petro and First Lady Verónica Alcocer were received by the King and Queen of Spain, Felipe VI and Leticia Ortiz, who with great protocol gave them a great welcome. The head of state and his wife arrived in a 1952 Rolls-Royce Phantom to the square, surrounded by nearly 600 cavalry, infantry and motorized guards.

While the protocol act progressed and they were seen walking, it was quite noticeable that Petro was not wearing a tailcoat, the highest etiquette masculine dress that should be worn on this type of occasion. As the president pointed out in an interview for La W, he decided not to wear it because he considers it to be an elite symbol, and anti-democrat.

You can also read: “The time for change has arrived”: Gustavo Petro before the Spanish Congress

“I don’t feel comfortable with the tie or the tailcoat. I have never worn a tailcoat ”, he said from Madrid in an interview with the W Radio station.

But the first lady had a different opinion, so she did decide to wear a dress according to the established etiquette. She wore a 100% wool crepe dress, with handmade pleats, made by Diana Chirimía, from the Embera Katio tribe, to be later assembled by the designer Andrés Otálora, The FM explained.

In addition to the fact that he also wore Christian Louboutin shoes, -the same brand that he used when he visited Pope Francis-, for a value of $800 euros, that is, $4,117,807.

To deepen: On video: members of the Vox party boycotted Petro’s speech in the Spanish Parliament

After the formal ceremony, President Petro addressed the Spanish Congress of Deputies, in which was boycotted by the right-wing party Vox, who decided to leave the venue, – a fact that was recorded on video – minutes before the president began his speech, in the middle of a session between deputies and senators.

A fact that would not have been taken as a surprise, since Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, spokesman for the Vox party in Congress, had said in previous days that the party would not attend any welcome event for someone who is “an obstacle to freedom and the development of human rights in the countries of Ibero-America”, he said on April 25.

Peter in his speech He spoke of climate change, of “polycrisis”, stressed that he comes “from the country of beauty”, and that he learned of Spain through Don Quixote de la Mancha, from whom he learned to “walk to build justice”.