Royal Central - Prince Ricardo De La Cerda
King Felipe and Queen Letizia traveled to Barcelona to award the first edition of the La Vanguardia prizes, dedicated to people and entities that work in social, economic, political or cultural domains.
Their Majesties arrived at the National Museum of Art of Catalonia in the evening of 18th September 2023, and were welcomed by state and local authorities, as well as some of the top officials in the Godó Communication Group, which is the editor of the “La Vanguardia” newspaper.
The first event was the awarding of the two “In Memoriam” prizes, which were handed out to people close to the award recipients (Josep Piqué, an entrepreneur, and Juan Antonio Samaranch, the diplomat who brought the Olympic Games to Barcelona in 1992) by the President of Godó.
Then the King and Queen took to the stage to hand out the awards in 6 categories:
But it was actually King Felipe’s speech that made an impression; after praising the history of the 142 years of the newspaper, he went on to speak about the importance of a free press for the creation and maintenance of a truly democratic society: “We live in uncertain times during which, despite the increased volume of information available in a more immediate way, truth seems to find it difficult to find a path. Because of this, it is more crucial than ever to have a free press that is dedicated to the truth, with the stringency of the search for it, and with the values that make up our democratic society”.
After posing for a photograph with all award recipients, King Felipe and Queen Letizia made their way back to Madrid, where they are expected to officially open the new season of the Royal Theatre.
The La Vanguardia prizes were created to celebrate the newspaper’s 140th anniversary, which fell in 2021; however, due to health safety restrictions, they had to be postponed until this year. From now on, they will be awarded annually, with winners chosen by a jury made up of illustrious names in the fields of social, economic, political and cultural policies.