Four years after receiving the French president Valery Giscard, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia welcomed President François Mitterrand on a State Visit to Spain from the 22nd to the 24th of June 1982. Beginning with an Official Welcome, other events during President François Mitterrand’s State Visit included a State Banquet at the Royal Palace of Madrid where both the King and the President gave speeches, a Private Lunch at the Zarzuela Palace, a Visit to Museo del Prado, and a Return Banquet offered by the President at the French Embassy. This visit was marked by political tension between both countries due the lack of broad cooperation in the fight against Basque terrorism and France’s reluctance on welcoming Spain into the European Economic Community.
The highlight of the Visit was a State Banquet hosted by King Juan Carlos I (in the Order of French Legion d’Honneur, the Order of Charles III and the Order of the Golden Fleece) and Queen Sofia (wearing the French National Order of Merit, the diamond earrings, the pearl brooch and the twin bracelets from the Joyas de Pasar as well as her fleur-de-lys brooch) for President Mitterrand (in the Order of Isabella the Catholic) and Mme Danielle Mitterrand (wearing the Order of Isabella the Catholic). The King’s speech had a message about peace, the fight on terrorism, the conflicts in Lebanon and the Malvines, the importance of the relationship with Latin America as well as the desire of Spain joining the European Economic Community:
Today Spain is coming out of its isolation to join, in a spirit of solidarity and willingness to participate, the political, economic and defensive institutions that make up the Western world, which is our world. The great European project that we have before us absolutely needs the contribution of this excited and young Spain, in which the values of democracy and freedom have caught on vigorously and irreversibly. The Spanish people are determined to participate fully in this European project, giving it all their vitality and their hopeful faith in the values of democracy and freedom. My country, which is already an ally of yours in the commitment to collective security of the Western European world, also wishes, as you know, the integration of Spain into the European Community and hopes, for many reasons, that it can take place -without further delays. – quickly and satisfactorily. One could not speak of friendship, solidarity and cooperation if this were not the case.”
However, the president’s views on these issues were quite the opposite of the King’s, translating that evening into a frontal clash of the Franco-Spanish positions. In a 29-minute speech, the president reiterated that the entry of Spain would be as much as “adding one more misery” to the misery that the Common Market already is and that if Spain entered the community, in the present circumstances, “it would be a disaster” for everyone. He also pointed out that France was not permanently closing the door of the Common Market to Spain, but that it was possible that those doors remained ajar for a long time.
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On the second evening there as a Returning Banquet at the French Embassy in Madrid offered by the President and Mme Danielle Mitterrand for King Juan Carlos (in the Order of French Legion d’Honneur, the Order of Charles III and the Order of the Golden Fleece) and Queen Sofia (wearing the French National Order of Merit and the necklace, shoulder pin, earrings and brooch part of her Sapphire Suite).
