Despite Felipe VI’s request to return after May 28, Juan Carlos I landed in the country this Wednesday for a “private” visit. We can react: “Democratic indecency.”
The former king of Spain Juan Carlos I returns to the country this week, but in the absence of his son and current monarch, Felipe VI, who wanted to avoid the controversy surrounding the crown during the electoral period, according to sources from the Royal House.
Juan Carlos de Borbón, involved in suspicions of corruption and other controversies related to behaviors considered disrespectful by Spanish institutions, has lived in exile in the United Arab Emirates since 2020 and plans to land in Spain on Wednesday, to spend a few days in Sanxenxo, Galicia, and participate in sailing regattas.
Juan Carlos will have lunch with Carlos III and then return to Spain for regattas in Galicia
The emeritus king, who abdicated in 2014, was already in Sanxenxo in May last year, in what was his first trip to Spain since 2020 and which ended up being the target of criticism from various sectors, due to the way in which Juan Carlos I announced the ranch and exposed himself publicly, dragging behind him 300 accredited journalists organized by a yacht club or accepting a tribute ceremony from the same club.
In Sanxenxo, Juan Carlos I also ended up greeting groups of people who came to town and welcomed him with shouts of “long live the king” as he passed through various points.
In parallel, political parties and leaders, namely the socialists who are in the national government, among other voices, regretted that step so media and with a triumphant side of Spain and complained that he should have taken the opportunity to explain his performance as Head of State and apologies to the spanish.
“Explanations for what?” He responded, in Sanxenxo, to a journalist’s question.
Sanxenxo. The “Marbella del norte” that conquered the jet set and stopped to see the return of the emeritus king
Last year’s visit ended with a stopover in Madrid before returning to Abu Dhabi in which Juan Carlos I met in private with Felipe VI, as officially revealed by the Spanish Royal House in a statement.
Sources from the Royal House added to the media that in that conversation the current monarch condemned the “circus” that the visit to Sanxenxo had become and asked Juan Carlos I to be more discreet, especially on new trips to Spain.
The same Casa Real sources assure that Felipe VI had asked his father to return to Sanxenxo this year, for the regattas of which he is a fan, only after the municipal and regional elections on May 28, so as not to risk the crown and The future of the monarchy became a topic at election campaign rallies.
Apparently, Juan Carlos I’s team would have agreed, according to the same sources, which add that, however, the Spanish Royal House has learned through the media that the emeritus king is landing in Sanxenxo this week.
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The Government, through its spokesperson, the socialist Isabel Rodríguez, has already said that the the visit is “private scope”but he added that the executive has already “expressed his opinion on multiple occasions” in relation to “the conduct of the king emeritus” and it remains the same.
Isabel Rodríguez did not want, however, to extend her response or clearly ask Juan Carlos I to give explanations to the Spaniards and apologize to the country, as the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has already done.
Already the largest partner of the Socialists in the government coalition, Podemos (extreme left) considered in the Monday a “democratic indecency” the return of Juan Carlos I to Spain, who never “rendered accounts in court for his misdeeds” and to the citizens of the country.
And one of the vice presidents of the Government, the Minister of Labor and communist leader, Yolanda Díaz, in addition to insisting that explanations and apologies from Juan Carlos I are lacking, entered the terrain that Felipe VI, precisely, wanted to avoid and, in an interview with La Sexta television on Sunday night, reaffirmed that He is a Republican and that the future of the monarchy has to enter the public debate, which he predicted will happen “in the next decade.”
Analysts and experts in the Spanish monarchy agree that the debate on the future of the monarchy is approaching and will be inevitable in a while, since the current heir to the throne, Leonor de Borbón, comes of age in October of this year. and it is necessary change the constitutionthat gives priority to men over women in inheritance rights.
This reform of the Constitution requires a national referendum, which will put the question of the monarchy at the center of public debate.
Among the right-wing parties, the criticism is less and they say that Juan Carlos I is a Spanish citizen who can visit the country freely, privately and whenever he wants.
Despite the fact that he apparently returned to Spain in a unilateral decision, without taking into account the calendar that the Royal House has given him, Juan Carlos I is being more discreet in relation to this trip, unknown, for the moment, and contrary to what happened in 2022, what time you will arrive, where you will stay or what routes you will do in Galicia.
In March of last year, the Spanish courts closed the three cases that were related to the emeritus king, because some of the alleged crimes had already prescribed and because Juan Carlos I could not be prosecuted for the “fiscal irregularities” of which he was guilty. between 2008 and 2012. for his immunity as head of state.
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Source: Observadora
