Do we like them?Do we like Felipe VI?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A decent record on the right side of the harm test and a clean-ish one on character, held back by the monarchy itself and his father's money mess.
Felipe took the throne in June 2014 when his father, Juan Carlos, stepped aside after his own reputation had taken a battering. That's the job he inherited: a monarchy that needed to look cleaner, and a king who had to do it without any power to actually change anything. He's a constitutional monarch, so he doesn't vote or legislate, which shapes everything below.
The big stain on the family is his father's money. In March 2020, after reports of offshore funds linked to Juan Carlos, the palace announced Felipe was giving up any personal inheritance from his father and cutting off his allowance. The palace said Felipe had no knowledge of the funds, and he has denied being a knowing beneficiary. In 2022 he published his own assets, about €2.6 million, though a government spokesman called it make-up while the king remains legally inviolable.
On the harm test, he's actually good value. Within days of becoming king he received LGBTQ+ groups at El Pardo palace, the first time Spanish monarchs had done it formally, and the leader of one federation said they felt their message had been heard. His Christmas 2025 speech warned against polarisation and, per local reporting, named violence against women and young people's housing struggle.
On migrants and the world, he comes down on the kind side. Catalan outlet Ara reported he used a visit to L'Hospitalet to defend immigration against sectarianism, and in his 2024 Christmas message he flagged climate denial as a worry. At the UN in 2025 he called for an end to the massacre in Gaza, which Madrid's mayor said was the speech that needed making. Where you land on that depends on whether you read it as a head of state speaking for his government or a king stepping into politics.
The recent bit is his colonial-history moment. In March 2026 he said there had been significant abuses in the conquest of America and that some actions cannot make Spain proud, while also warning against excessive moral presentism. It wasn't a formal apology, and Mexico's president called it a gesture of rapprochement, not everything her side wanted. Critics on the right got stuck in, and that's a lot of heat for a man trying to patch up a diplomatic relationship.
He also copped plenty of anger in November 2024, when flood survivors in Paiporta pelted him with mud and shouted insults during a visit after the deadly Valencia floods. He stayed to talk with residents, and said he understood the anger. The anger was aimed at officials generally, so it doesn't count against him either way.