This Wednesday, King Felipe VI delivered his traditional Christmas speech, which began with a demand for democratic transition, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the monarchy. In a scenario marked by “internal and external challenges”, the monarch calls for coexistenceand stressed the need to preserve a “vision of the country” in the face of the tension of public debate, which provokes “boredom, disenchantment and disaffection” of citizens.
These are the ten most important sentences mentioned by Felipe VI in his speech to Spanish citizens, recorded in the Hall of Columns of the Royal Palace in December 2025:
Transition
The Transition was above all a collective exercise of responsibility
European Union
Europe has not only brought modernization and economic and social progress: it has strengthened our democratic freedoms
Cost of living and access to housing
Many citizens believe that the rising cost of living limits their opportunities for advancement; that access to housing constitutes an obstacle to the projects of so many young people; that the rapidity of technological progress generates uncertainty regarding employment; or that climatic phenomena constitute a growing and sometimes tragic situation
political disaffection
Citizens also perceive that the tension in public debate causes boredom, disenchantment and disaffection. Realities, all of them, which cannot be resolved by rhetoric or voluntarism.
The solutions to our problems require the participation, responsibility and commitment of everyone; I’m talking about respecting language and listening to the opinions of others; I am talking about a particular exemplary nature in the exercise of all public powers.
Extremism, radicalism and populism feed on this lack of trust, misinformation, inequality, disenchantment with the present and doubts about how to approach the future.
Coexistence
Throughout these 50 years, our country has repeatedly demonstrated that it knows how to respond to internal and external challenges when there is will, perseverance and vision of the country.
Spain progressed when we were able to find objectives to share. And the root of any shared project is necessarily coexistence
Trust
We must all make the concern for coexistence our daily work. And for that we need trust
Your own ideas can never be dogmas, nor those of others threats.
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