Felipe VI has presided over the act of the XXX anniversary of the promotion of the Faculty of Law of the Autonomous University of Madrid, the center where he studied his degree between 1988 and 1993. Three decades later, Don Felipe has once again coincided with fifty of the who were his classmates for five years, who have remembered some anecdotes of sharing class with the King before the arrival of the Monarch.
Everyone has agreed in describing Felipe VI, the first Spanish Head of State with university studies, as "a responsible student who always occupied the second row in the classroom", recalled Virginia Maté, who never exchanged notes with the King, but does remember that he "asked very interesting questions and participated in all the seminars".
The lawyer Francisco Echeverría recalls how they found out that they would be classmates of the then Prince of Asturias: "Just before starting the degree they called us to inform us that we were going to have the honor of sharing the degree with him." Echeverría remembers what most caught his attention: "I came home after university and he was in Barcelona giving a speech, but the next day he was in class."
The current lawyer of the Supreme Court Raúl Cancio assures that the Monarch "was one more student", but when the weeks passed and they began to share tortilla skewers in the cafeteria "his family appeared on the coins and bills".
During the five years that the King was in the Autonomous, two members of the security personnel guarded the classroom door, although no student remembers it as uncomfortable once they got used to it. "Then, years later, we found out that two other companions who did the race were actually the King's escorts," says Maté.
While the former students waited for their most illustrious companion, half a thousand current students crowded into the entrance hall of the Faculty. Half an hour after twelve in the morning, everyone burst into applause and cheers to the Monarch, who appreciated the warmth of the students. Upon his arrival, the King greeted a representation of the teachers who taught him and joined the rest of his classmates to celebrate the 30th anniversary in the assembly hall.
Don Felipe took the floor at the end, in a speech in which he joked that "the university stage is a turning point in the life of any student (...) it was for me too, even if I had a future let's say more predictable, given that in life not everything or little can be predictable".
The King, who affirmed that he has "a very valuable collection of memorabilia from that time", praised all his teachers, who, in addition to teaching them the degree, trained them "in the principles and values that should inspire the law and the concrete application of the norm. They instructed us in the idea that the value of law in society is oriented to the promotion of Justice". Don Felipe has assured that the passing of the years allows him to reiterate "the loyalty and fidelity to the constitution" as well as the "firm belief in the importance of the role of the University for the economic and social development progress of Spain". Because the King has flexed: "A society without a robust University is inconceivable."
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