Royal 'balance sheet' reveals gifts of fans, masks, stuffed toys and a signed F1 helmet

TWO stuffed toys, a Buddha ornament and a Japanese-style pai pai fan are among the gifts given to the Royal family in 2020 – a total of 246 items the King, Queen and their two daughters received from members of the public last year.

The monarchy is required to present an annual memorandum of assets and income, and all presents given to them, however small, have to be mentioned by law.

Even though they may get to keep them in their home, any gifts accepted by the Royals are classed as 'national heritage' and legally belong to the State.

The vast majority of them are given during official engagements, sometimes from diplomatic representatives either visiting or abroad, or at regional or local acts by mayors, ministers or presidents, or are handed to them by members of the public; a small number are mailed to them.

Most of them are photographs or books – one of the most recent of which was two anthologies of poetry presented to King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia by the late writer Francisco Brines when they travelled to his home in Oliva (Valencia province) to give him his 2020 Cervantes Prize.

Of the 246 received last year, the majority were given personally to King Felipe VI – 89 in total – and Queen Letizia, who documented 61, or to the King and Queen as a couple, being exactly 70.

The Royal girls – Queen Letizia and her daughters, Princess Leonor, 15 and the Infanta Sofía, who has just turned 14 – were given 14 jointly, whilst the sisters got nine between them, Princess Leonor received two and the Infanta Sofía one, personally.

Soft toys were more popular when the Royal daughters were very small children, but the ones they received as young teenagers came from the Church-run anti-poverty charity Cáritas, when they visited an elderly home care service headquarters operated by the branch in Alcalá de Henares (Greater Madrid region).

The pai pai folding fan was given to the King and Queen jointly during an official visit to Ibiza, and the Buddha ornament was presented to Felipe VI by the new ambassador for Nepal when she was sworn in by the monarch.

Over 10 pages listing gifts, recipients and givers reveals that the King received a compass from the World Holocaust Forum Foundation, and a Formula 1 helmet autographed by Fernando Alonso from the CEO of Team Rénault, Luca de Meo, whilst the Queen was given a scarf by Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso when visiting its pavilion at the opening ceremony of international tourism fair FITUR last week.

The pandemic has also contributed to the types of gifts the Royals have received – numerous in-person visits to institutions and associations mean they have received a large haul of souvenir masks.

Royal engagements were, naturally, affected by the Covid-19 outbreak – many of these were conducted via video-conference rather than travelling to the venues.

Of the 360 activities they were involved in last year – almost one every single day, even on their birthdays – 20% were economy-related, 18% institutional, 16% cultural, 14% charity-related, and 12% international.

All bar 28 were on Spanish territory, seven in 10 in the Greater Madrid region, where the Royal family is based – the Zarzuela Palace is their main and permanent home – although the King and Queen visited every single one of Spain's autonomously-governed regions at least once.

The 28 international visits took place in eight countries: France, Portugal, Poland, Israel, Bolivia, Uruguay, Hondurás and Oman.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, jointly or separately, held 224 'audiences with', officially receiving 1,629 people, being representatives of governments, institutions, associations or charities, or other key public figures.

During lockdown, they took part in 97 video-conferences and made 166 official phone calls, contacting over 1,000 people from around 100 industries or areas of society, including 47 healthcare institutions and hospitals and 30 or so tertiary-sector organisations.

The Royal family's annual budget for 2020 came to €8.5 million, of which nearly €7.9m came from the State general budge and around €650,000 from their own institutional funds for extraordinary projects; their actual expenses came to €7.9m, and around €600,000 has been carried over as a budget surplus.

The largest expense was in personnel – the staff wage bill came to €3.9m – followed by overheads and running costs, at €2.6m, of which €2.1m went on materials, equipments, supplies and utilities, including transport, which has to be high-security, for obvious reasons.

Investments totalled €1.3m.

As for wages, King Felipe VI was paid €253,843 before tax, his wife €139,605, and the 'Queen Mother', Sofía – who retains her Royal title and works constantly and tirelessly for numerous charities, maintaining an active, but out-of-the-limelight, representation at the age of 82 – was paid €114,231.

The Rex Emeritus King Juan Carlos I, who abdicated in favour of his son in June 2014, was paid €42,033, but stopped getting a wage from the Royal budget in March last year when King Felipe VI withdrew it for PR reasons.

Overall, the €8.5m it costs for Spain to be a monarchy works out less than paying a nominated Head of State to perform the same activities if it were to go back to being a Republic, and the multiple diplomatic and PR work they carry out within this budget comes relatively cheap at the price.