The King’s messages: opportunity and way to regulate them

Abstract

As Head of State, the King of Spain usually addresses citizens through messages made in various contexts. Sometimes, the messages occur within the framework of an official event in which the King addresses a few words to those attending; he can also give a lecture at an academic event; likewise, every year he sends a message to the citizens on the occasion of Christmas; and, in exceptional situations, such as those of February 23, 1981 and October 3, 2017, the King makes messages whose effects on national life can be transcendental. However, the King’s messages are not regulated in any regulation specifically dedicated to them and, beyond being considered recurrently as a manifestation of his arbitration and moderation functions contained in art. 56.1of the Constitution, have never been normatively developed. The objective of this text is to analyze the King’s messages, raise the opportunity for its regulation and offer different options to carry it out, either through a constitutional reform, or with its inclusion in a Crown law, or through a regulation. It is concluded that the King’s messages must be regulated, that it would not be necessary to reform the Constitution and that a regulation would be the simplest way to regulate them.