Vatican broke protocol to give Zelensky front-row seat at Pope’s funeral – The Telegraph

That’s according to The Telegraph, Ukrinform reports.

It seems that the Vatican made special arrangements to ensure Zelensky was given a prominent spot in the limelight at a ceremony where most leaders were seated according to their country’s name and whether they were heads of state or government.

Arcane rules dictated that world leaders be seated in alphabetical order according to the name of their country in French – the traditional language of diplomacy when the protocols were made.

As president of Ukraine, Zelensky could have expected to be in the third row or even farther back. Instead, he was seated in the front row, 11 seats away from Trump, who was on his right.

The Vatican did not deny that protocol rules had been bent. “I believe they filled a vacant place,” Matteo Bruni, the Vatican spokesman, said.

Between Zelensky and Trump were, among others, the presidents of India, Hungary, Gabon, Macron and his wife, Brigitte, and Alexander Stubb, Finland’s president.

Elsewhere, the rules were strictly observed, with Javier Milei, Argentina’s president, seated next to a standing Swiss guard on the far right of the front row. The Prince of Wales, who was representing the King, was seated in the third row, next to Olaf Scholz, the outgoing German chancellor, who is a head of government rather than head of state. Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, and his wife, Lady Starmer, were also in attendance, as was Joe Biden, the former U.S. president, who was seated in the fifth row.

Sergio Mattarella, Italy’s president, was in the front row, while Giorgia Meloni, the country’s prime minister, was seated farther back in observance of the protocol regarding heads of government and heads of state such as presidents and royals.