Felipe VI will have two more women in leadership positions within the House of the King

According to information from the Zarzuela Palace, early next month of December The replacement of the secretary general of the Maison du Roi will take place, Domingo Martinez Palomoand the diplomatic advisor of the Household of His Majesty the King, Alfonso Sanz Portoles. Two women will join these leadership positions. Mercedes Araújo Díaz de Teránthe current Deputy Secretary General for Parliamentary Affairs of the Congress of Deputies, will be the new secretary general of the Chamber; while Carmen Castiella Ruiz de Velascocurrent ambassador of Spain to Paraguay, will become diplomatic advisor to the king.

Araújo and Castiella follow in the footsteps of Maria Ocanawho last April became the first woman to hold a senior position in the Household of the King, when she took charge of the Queen’s Secretariat. Before them, the only woman holding a position of responsibility in the House was Ana Varela Varelawho is the speaker.

These changes come almost ten months after the arrival of Camilo Villarino to the management of the House of the King, which is the body that reports directly to Felipe VI and through which the activities that arise from his institutional functions as head of state are managed.

According to these appointments, Araújo is placed in the organizational chart of the House of the King just behind Villarino. With his arrival, the King will have for the first time in his management team a lawyer from the Cortes Générales, a woman who knows the functioning of the Court. representation and defense of the Congress of Deputiesthe Senate, the Central Electoral Council and the bodies and institutions linked to or dependent on the Constitutional Court.

Retirement age

As stated in Royal Decree 297/2022 of April 26 sanctioned by the King, it is up to the Head of the King’s Household to assign functions to the staff integrated into the Secretariat, the Military Hall and the Royal Guard. Therefore, these new changes, which ABC had already published last June and which were happening, corresponded to Villarino. Domingo Martínez Palomo and Alfonso Sanz Portolés both have decades of work in the service of the Crown, so this change occurs due to a question of age, since They both reached retirement age this year..

The new Secretary General of the Chamber, Mercedes Araújo Díaz de Teránhe joined the Corps of Lawyers of the Cortes Générales in 1995, where he successively held positions of assistance and advice to the governing bodies of the Congress, from the 6th to the 15th legislature. Between 2014 and 2024, she held the responsibilities of Deputy Secretary General for Administrative Affairs of the Congress and, also, for Parliamentary Affairs.

Carmen Castiella Ruiz de VelascoFor her part, she has been a career diplomat since 1999. She has been stationed in various embassies and advisory positions at the Presidency of the Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Until her new appointment as diplomatic advisor, she was ambassador to Paraguay, where she met Queen Letizia during her trip with Spanish cooperation in 2021. Previously, she was director of cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean from the Spanish International Cooperation Agency.