On Saturday, December 7, political leaders and royalty from around the world gathered to celebrate the reopening ceremony of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris after the devastating 2019 fires. Everyone from Jill Biden to Prince William (who met with President-elect Donald Trump after the event) was there, but Spain's King Felipe and Queen Letizia caused a bit of a political scandal when no one from their country showed up.

According to Spanish media outlet La Vanguardia, politician Alberto Nunez Feijo, head of the country's People's Party, said it was “a real shame for our country” that no Spanish representatives attended the cathedral reopening ceremony.

The invitation was sent to Culture Minister Ernesto Urtasun, who, according to La Vanguardia, declined the invitation due to “family reasons” and was attending a circus show in Madrid the same day. However, the invitation was “non-transferable” and the King and Queen could not attend “without government officials,” according to the magazine.

No “steps were taken by the Spanish Royal Court to rectify the situation,” the outlet continued, and no one in the government “proposed replacing ministers” or “facilitated the attendance of the king and queen or the king alone.”

“The possibility of the King and Queen staying in Paris was never actually contemplated. This suggests that the decision to decline the invitation was made by the head of the royal family, taking into account the constraints of the King and Queen's private schedule,” La Vanguardia reported.

Spain's absence was particularly notable given that the country is Catholic. Prince Albert of Monaco, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium, and Archduke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg attended the ceremony celebrating the reopening of the cathedral, making Spain the only Catholic royal family without a representative.

The Spanish royal family would not give a reason for the king and queen's absence from Notre Dame Cathedral, saying, according to La Vanguardia, that they would “only explain the reason if their presence was announced and then cancelled.”

This is the second major controversy concerning the Spanish royal family in recent months: in early November, the royal couple visited the Valencia region of Spain, where the area suffered a deadly food crisis and angry locals threw mud and other objects at the king and queen.

Although they did not attend a special service at Notre Dame, on Monday, December 9, the King and Queen of Spain participated in a memorial service for Spanish residents killed in the recent floods.