Overview
- French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte were formally received with military honours in Madrid during the two-day state visit on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 29–30, 2026.
- King Felipe issued a royal decree awarding Macron the Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic and Brigitte Macron the Grand Cross, and both wore the decorations at the state banquet.
- The official programme combined ceremony with substance, including a Zarzuela lunch, a gala state banquet, a meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, a Spain‑France trade and investment forum, and visits to the EU SatCen and Casa de Velázquez.
- The 2023 friendship and cooperation treaty that Macron and Sánchez signed remains politically contested in Spain after France ratified it in March 2025 and Spanish parliamentary ratification failed in May 2025, with PP and Vox raising constitutional objections despite a unanimous Constitutional Court finding of compatibility.
- The visit advances symbolic goodwill between Madrid and Paris but leaves open practical questions about how the still-unratified treaty will affect concrete cooperation on defence, security, energy and justice if Spain’s legislature does not approve it.