Spanish
The President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, begins tomorrow, Wednesday, a state visit to Spain, which includes a gala dinner with the King and Queen, an interview with the head of Government, Pedro Sánchez, and a visit to Gernika, a Basque town devastated by German and Italian bombings in the Civil War.
This visit, as reported by both governments when it was announced, is part of the close bilateral relations maintained by the two countries, partners in the European Union and allies in NATO, and is held just two months after the visit of the Federal Chancellor, Friedrich Merz.
The federal president will also be the first German head of state to visit the city of Gernika (north), which was bombed in 1937 by the German Condor Legion and the Italian Legionary Aviation, then allies of Franco, in what is considered the first massive and indiscriminate aerial attack against a civilian population.
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Steinmeier already publicly apologized in Warsaw in 2023 for the crimes perpetrated by the Nazi regime in the Polish capital against the Jews. The visit of the German president will begin at the Royal Palace, where he will be received with military honors by the kings. Afterwards, the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Almeida, will present him with the golden key to the city and, subsequently, he will hold a meeting with King Felipe VI at the Zarzuela Palace, the official residence, where the kings will offer him a lunch. In the afternoon, Steinmeier will go to the Congress of Deputies and then to the Reina Sofía Museum, where Picasso's 'Guernica' painting is exhibited, a work inspired by the aerial attacks on the Basque city. The day will conclude with a dinner in his honor, offered by the King and Queen at the Royal Palace. On Thursday, he will attend a meeting between representatives of the Spanish and German economies prior to the inauguration of the XI Spanish-German Forum. He will also meet with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, with whom he will have lunch, and in the afternoon he will visit the biotechnological production plant of the German multinational Merck in the Madrid town of Tres Cantos. The program for this second day of the visit also includes the awarding of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany to the former German footballer Toni Kroos and a visit to the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, where he will meet with representatives and players from Real Madrid. At night, the German President and his wife, Elke Büdenbender, will host a reception in honor of King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia. In the last day of his visit, Steinmeier will travel to Vitoria to meet with the head of the Basque Government (lehendakari), Imanol Pradales, and then go to Gernika to make a floral offering in memory of the victims of the bombing of the city. During his visit to Gernika, he will be accompanied by King Felipe VI, sources from the Royal House confirmed to EFE this Tuesday. You will also visit the Peace Museum in this municipality and in the afternoon you will move to Bilbao to visit the German School and the Guggenheim Museum.
