For the first time, King Felipe appointed two women to positions of responsibility in the Royal House

The structure of the Royal House continues to change. For the first time a woman will be the King’s general secretary and another a diplomatic adviser. These are two highly responsible posts which means four out of eleven such posts will be held by women. The Head of State has a new signature Mercedes Araujo and Carmen Castile.

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Araujo is the current deputy secretary general of Congress for Parliamentary Affairs and in early December will succeed Domingo Martínez Palomo as secretary general of the King’s House after decades of service. For his part, Carmen Castiella will replace Paraguayan ambassador and Alfonso Sanz Portoles as diplomatic adviser.

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Mercedes Araujo Díaz de Terran joined the Corps of Lawyers of the Cortes Generales in 1995, holding a series of positions of assistance and advice to Congressional government agencies in several legislatures. Between 2014 and 2024, he served as Deputy General Secretary for Administrative Affairs of the Lower House and took over from Martínez Palomo, now 70, appointed on June 27, 2014, although he previously held other positions in Zarzuela. . Married with two children, he joined the Civil Guard in 1973 and after passing the selection course, he entered the General Military Academy, a year later in 1978 he was promoted to Lieutenant in the Civil Guard. He earned a degree in law.

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A deep reform

It is the first time that a woman will be Zarzuela’s number two below the head of the Royal House, Camillo Villarino, who took office earlier in the year after Mr. Philippe succeeded Jaime Alfonsin after more than three decades in the job. .

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Carmen Castiella Ruiz de Velasco has been a career diplomat since 1999 and has been appointed to various embassies and advisory positions in the Presidency and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government, and was Director of Cooperation with Latin until his appointment as Ambassador to Paraguay. Americas and the Caribbean of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation. He will take over from Alfonso Sanz Portoles, who held embassies in Saudi Arabia and South Africa before joining the royal family.

Thus, the female presence in the top positions of the head of state intensified and four of the ten senior positions are women, following the appointment of Maria Ocana as secretary to Queen Letizia and Ana Varela as auditor.