After a first year spent away from her family in Wales for her studies, Leonor of Spain, 16, thought she could finally clear her head and recharge her batteries before returning to school next August. . But this long sunny parenthesis – which she must partly spend with her companion, also a student at UWC Atlantic College – is now darkened. In question ? A case of unfair dismissal in which she is involved in spite of herself.
No, Leonor of Spain did not yell at one of the Zarzuela Palace employees for his incompetence. She didn’t even do anything at all. In February 2021, Berni Barrachina, journalist for the television channel TVE, for which Letizia of Spain worked before her marriage to Felipe VI, began a report on the schooling abroad of the young Leonor with a slightly provocative headband: “Leonor leaves Spain, like her grandpa” was it written. These few words, in reference to the exile of Juan Carlos, the palace did not appreciate them. It therefore pressed for sanctions to be pronounced. They were not long in coming.
After reflection, the director of TVE preferred to dismiss Berni Barrachina, who reacted, always with a biting humor, on Twitter: “I got fired, like Leonor’s grandpa.“Officially dismissed since last September, the journalist should nevertheless make his return to the channel very soon since his dismissal was declared invalid by the Supreme Court of Madrid on Thursday June 23. According to Justice, the famous banner of the scandal was certainly “inappropriate” but not “offensive“towards the Crown or towards Princess Leonor. The Court therefore ordered his reinstatement on TVE as well as compensation of 10,000 euros for unfair dismissal.